[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 33, Number 46 (Monday, November 17, 1997)]
[Pages 1800-1801]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Statement on Congressional Action on the ``Adoption and Safe Families 
Act of 1997''

November 13, 1997

    I am pleased that the Senate and the House of Representatives have 
passed historic, bipartisan legislation to promote adoption and improve 
our Nation's child welfare system, giving our Nation's most vulnerable 
children what every child deserves--a safe and permanent home. I very 
much look forward to signing the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 
into law.
    This legislation makes clear that children's health and safety are 
the paramount concerns of the public child welfare system. I am 
particularly pleased that the bill incorporates my administration's 
recommendations to provide

[[Page 1801]]

states with financial incentives to increase the number of children who 
are adopted and to make other changes in Federal law that will make 
adoption easier and move children more rapidly out of foster care and 
into permanent homes. The legislation also strengthens support to States 
for services that help families stay together when that is possible and 
promote adoption when it is not. Most important, this legislation will 
help us meet the goal of doubling, by the year 2002, the number of 
children who are adopted or permanently placed each year.
    I want to thank the many Members of the Senate and the House of 
Representatives who worked so hard on this bipartisan achievement, but I 
particularly want to thank the Congressional leadership and the sponsors 
of this legislation, Senators Chafee and Rockefeller and Representatives 
Camp and Kennelly, for their commitment. And I would like to add a 
special work of thanks to the First Lady for her tenacity and dedication 
to this important issue.
    I can think of no better way to celebrate National Adoption Month 
than to sign this legislation into law.