[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 43 (Monday, November 1, 1999)]
[Pages 2186-2188]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 7245--National Adoption Month, 1999

October 28, 1999

By the President of the United States

of America

A Proclamation

    This month, as families across America look forward to the holiday 
season that is fast

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approaching, we remember with special concern the thousands of children 
in our Nation who are growing up without the unconditional love and 
security of a permanent home. Our Nation's foster care system plays an 
invaluable role in providing temporary safe and caring homes to children 
who need them, but permanent homes and families are vital to giving 
these children the stability and sustained love they need to reach their 
full potential.
    My Administration has worked hard to promote adoption by assisting 
adoptive families and breaking down barriers to adoption. We have helped 
remove many economic barriers to adoption by providing tax credits to 
families adopting children, and the Family and Medical Leave Act that I 
signed into law in 1993 gives workers job-protected leave to care for 
their newly adopted children. The Adoption and Safe Families Act I 
signed in 1997 reformed our Nation's child welfare system, made clear 
that the health and safety of children must be the paramount concern of 
State child welfare services, and expedited permanent placement for 
children. It also ensured health coverage for children with special 
needs and created new financial incentives for States to increase 
adoption. We also took important steps to help ensure that the adoption 
process remains free from discrimination and delays on the basis of 
race, culture, and ethnicity. We are now working to break down 
geographic barriers to adoption by using the Internet to link children 
in foster care to possible adoptive families.
    We have new evidence that our efforts are bearing fruit: the first 
significant increase in adoptions since the National Foster Care Program 
was created almost 20 years ago. A new report from the Department of 
Health and Human Services shows that from 1996 to 1998, the number of 
adoptions nationwide rose 29 percent--from 28,000 to 36,000--and should 
meet our national goal of 56,000 adoptions by the year 2002. In 
addition, the First Lady and I were pleased to announce this past 
September the first-ever bonus awards to States that have increased the 
number of adoptions from the public foster care system. We also 
announced additional grants to public and private organizations that 
remove barriers to adoption.
    To follow through on this record of achievement, I have urged the 
Congress to safeguard the interests and well-being of young people who 
reach the age of 18 without being adopted or placed in a permanent home. 
Under the current system, Federal financial assistance for young people 
in foster care ends just as they are making the critical transition to 
independence. We must ensure that when these young people are old enough 
to leave the foster care system, they have the health care, life skills 
training, and educational opportunities they need to succeed personally 
and professionally.
    As we observe National Adoption Month this year, we can take pride 
in our progress, but we know there is more work to be done. Let us take 
this opportunity to rededicate ourselves to meeting those challenges, 
and let us honor the many adoptive parents whose generosity and love 
have made such an extraordinary difference in the lives of thousands of 
our Nation's children.
    Now, Therefore, I, William J. Clinton, President of the United 
States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the 
Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim November 
1999 as National Adoption Month. I urge all Americans to observe this 
month with appropriate programs and activities to honor adoptive 
families and to participate in efforts to find permanent, loving homes 
for waiting children.
    In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-eighth 
day of October, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-
nine, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two
hundred and twenty-fourth.
                                            William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 11:31 a.m., October 29, 
1999]

Note: This proclamation was published in the Federal Register on 
November 1.

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