Date: 2010-11-17
Speaker: GINNY BROWN-WAITE (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Flor

ida. Mr. Speaker. I rise today in support of House Resolution 1648. which recognizes the goals and ideals of National Adoption Day and Month. As you know. November 20 will mark this years annual National Adoption Day celebration. All across our great country. communities will gather together to celebrate the adoptions that have been finalized this year and those that we hope will be finalized next year. In this spirit of community and family. this is what makes the National Adoption Day so very effective and also so very important in the lives of the Nations more than 423.000 foster childrenmore than half of whom are under the age of 10. The issue truly is an urgent one. Mr. Speaker. Each year as children grow older. it becomes harder and harder to place them with "forever" families. In fact. sadly. last year. 29.000 children "aged out" of the foster care system and are now on their own. As someone who adopted an older child. I know what this means to so many families and so many childrenin particular. to older children. I call adopting an older child the toughest job Ive ever had but also the one that was the most rewarding. In so many cases. adoption is the key to breaking the cycle of abuse for children who otherwise would languish in dangerous homes. Perhaps it goes without saying how important it is for children to grow up in loving and supporting families. Yet with thousands upon thousands of children still being denied this most fundamental opportunity. Congress must continue to do what it can to support their efforts to find a home. As such. the Federal Government has rightly stepped in to relieve the financial burden on adoptive families. and in doing so has made adoption more affordable to people of all income levels. but much still remains to be done. The resolution that we are considering today is an important reaffirmation of our commitment to improving the lives of foster children everywhere. and I thank my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for their support and attention to this matter. While we are on the subject of adoption. Mr. Speaker. I want to mention one more thing. It has been brought to my attention that the Democratic leadership has pulled another very important adoption bill from the schedule this week. Actually. I understand that they hope to use it as a vehicle to pass an unrelated measure called the DREAM Act. The adoption bill in question is called the Help HAITI Act. It was introduced by Congressman FORTENBERRY in response to the tragic earthquake in Haiti some months ago. His legislation has passed the House and the Senate. and it was designated to assist children orphaned by one of the greatest natural disasters in recent memory. A family in my district has adopted one of those children. He is a 3yearold boy named Samuel. After being abandoned. with no record of who his parents were. Samuel got a second chance at having a family. Sadly. his adoption is stuck in limbo now because of this action. Congressman FORTENBERRYS bill would change that. It has passed the House. and it has passed the Senate. All little Samuel needs is one clean vote and a stroke of the Presidents pen. To hold these children hostage in an effort to disguise a vote on a controversial piece of legislation that has no hope of becoming law is completely unacceptable. Frankly. Mr. Speaker. this is exactly the kind of skullduggery that the American people have grown so sick of. If the DREAM Act or any other piece of legislation cannot stand on its own merits. then the sponsors of the bill need to go back to the drawing board and find something that can stand on its own merits. The Help HAITI Act is one vote away from being sent to the Presidents desk. I strongly urge the Senate Democrat leaders to allow the House to vote to pass the Haiti adoption bill. If they choose not to. I hope that the current Speaker will at least have the decency to look Samuel and his parents in the eyes and explain the nefarious decision to them. I reserve the balance of my time.