The Adoption Incentive program (Section 473A of the Social Security Act) provides federal payments to state child welfare agencies that increase adoptions of children who are in need of new permanent families. Generally, these are children for whom reuniting with their biological parents is not possible and who would otherwise be expected to remain in public foster care until they "age out" (i.e., reach the state age of majority or the age at which state custody of children in foster care is ended). The first Adoption Incentive payments were made to states in FY1999 based on improvement in the numbers of adoptions completed in FY1998, and the most recent were announced in late FY2013 (August 2013) based on improvements in the numbers of adoptions completed in FY2012. Since the inception of the program, states (including the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico) have collectively received close to $424 million in federal incentive payments for increased adoptions. The Adoption Incentive program was most recently extended through FY2013 by the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 ( P.L. 110-351 ). However, as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2014 ( P.L. 113-76 ), Congress extended states' eligibility to earn adoption incentive payments for an additional year and appropriated $37.9 million to make those payments. Legislation to reauthorize and extend the Adoption Incentive Payments program through FY2016 has passed the full House ( H.R. 3205 ) and was approved in the Senate Finance Committee (Title I of S. 1870 ). Title II of H.R. 4980 , introduced on June 26, 2014, draws on language in both of those legislative proposals. In addition to extending funding authority for incentive payments through FY2016, Title II of H.R. 4980 would make changes to the incentive structure established in the 2008 law—including by changing the award categories to focus more on permanency for children 9 years of age or older, establishing incentive payments for states that appropriately move children from foster care to legal guardianship, determining improvements in state performance based on the rate (or percentage) of children leaving foster care to adoption or guardianship (rather than the number), and putting additional focus on achieving permanence through adoption or guardianship for older children. Apart from reauthorizing the Adoption Incentive program, the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 made several other changes to federal law, which Title II of H.R. 4980 would amend or otherwise address. Specifically, the bill would extend $15 million in annual mandatory funding for Family Connection Grants for one year (FY2014); that grant program was first established and funded in the 2008 law; adjust eligibility criteria for Title IV-E kinship guardianship assistance (which was first established in the 2008 law) to ensure continuous program eligibility for a child who must go to live with a "successor guardian" due to the incapacitation or death of his/her relative guardians; seek to further ensure siblings have the opportunity to live together while in foster care, by specifying that a 2008 requirement for state agencies to identify and give notice to grandparents and other relatives of children entering foster care includes identifying and providing notice to any parent of a sibling of a child entering care (provided that parent has custody of the sibling); and require additional reporting by states to ensure they spend any savings resulting from the expanded federal support for Title IV-E adoption assistance provided for in the 2008 law, and require that no less than 30% of any identified savings be used by the state to provide post-adoption or post-guardianship services and services to ensure safety and well-being of children who might otherwise enter foster care. This report begins by describing in greater detail the legislation under consideration in the 113 th Congress that would reauthorize and extend the Adoption Incentive Payments program and make additional child welfare-related changes described above. ( Appendix A includes a table comparing current law with several reauthorization proposals, including Title II of H.R. 4980 .) It also discusses hearings and other legislative actions taken in this Congress as part of the reauthorization effort. Additionally, the report provides background related to the Adoption Incentive program, including a discussion of the long-standing congressional interest in domestic adoption, the significant increases in adoption from foster care that have occurred since the mid-1990s, and the Adoption Incentive Payments program as it has functioned since the program's 2008 reauthorization. Throughout this report some unique terms related to adoption, foster child adoptions, or the Adoption Incentive program are used (e.g., "special needs" and "adoption rate"). While each of these terms is explained in the body of the report, for ease of reference they are also included in a "Glossary of Terms" provided in Appendix B to this report. On June 26, 2014, Representative Camp, with Representatives Levin, Reichert, and Doggett, introduced the Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act ( H.R. 4980 ). The bill's introduction was jointly announced by Representatives Camp and Levin, along with Senators Wyden and Hatch, and was described as "bipartisan legislation [that] reflects agreements reached between the House and Senate negotiators." Title II of H.R. 4980 draws on provisions included in both the Promoting Adoptions and Legal Guardianships for Children in Foster Care Act ( H.R. 3205 , introduced by Representative Camp, with Representatives Levin, Reichert, and Doggett), which was passed by the House in October 2013, and Title I of the Supporting At-Risk Children Act ( S. 1870 ), which was approved by the Senate Finance Committee in December 2013. (The Title I provisions of S. 1870 were also introduced in S. 1876 , the Strengthening and Finding Families for Children Act, which was introduced by Senator Baucus, with Senators Hatch, Wyden, Rockefeller, Grassley, and Casey.) H.R. 3205 and S. 1870 , in turn, drew on other introduced bills, which sought to extend Adoption Incentive Payments and/or make other amendments to child welfare law. In the 113 th Congress, these bills included the Guardians for Children Act ( H.R. 2979 , introduced by Representative Doggett, with Representatives Danny K. Davis, Bass, Lewis, Rangel, McDermott, and Blumenauer); Investing in Permanency for Youth in Foster Care Act ( H.R. 3124 , introduced by Representative Danny K. Davis); Removing Barriers to Adoption and Supporting Families Act of 2013 ( S. 1511 , introduced by Senator Rockefeller, with Senator Casey); Supporting Adoptive Families Act ( S. 1527 , introduced by Senator Klobuchar, with Senators Landrieu and Blunt/ H.R. 3423 introduced by Representative Langevin, with Representatives Wittman, Frederica Wilson, Sean Patrick Maloney, Norton, Bass, and Grimm); and the Sibling Connections Act ( S. 1786 , introduced by Senator Grassley, with Senator Kaine). This section describes Title II provisions of the Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act ( H.R. 4980 ). For a comparison of these Title II provisions to current law and provisions included in H.R. 3205 and S. 1870 / S. 1876 , see Appendix A . The Adoption Incentive program was authorized to receive up to $43 million in annual appropriations through the end of FY2013. Despite the expiration of funding authority, Congress chose to provide $37.9 million in FY2014 appropriations for these payments ( P.L. 113-76 ). Title II of H.R. 4980 would renew discretionary funding authority for the program, renamed as Adoption and Legal Guardianship Incentive Payments, at the current annual level ($43 million) through FY2016. The proposed three-year reauthorization time frame would align the funding authorization for the incentive payments program with the funding authorizations provided for two child welfare programs authorized under Title IV-B of the Social Security Act (Stephanie Tubbs Jones Child Welfare Services and Promoting Safe and Stable Families). Title II of H.R. 4980 would revise the categories for which states may earn incentive payments, expanding them to include exits from foster care to legal guardianship and placing additional focus on states' abilities to appropriately move children age 9 or older to permanent homes via adoption or guardianship. It would retain an award category for improving foster child adoptions and add a separate award category for foster child guardianships. Awards in these categories would be available with regard to adoptions and guardianships for children of any age. Additionally, H.R. 4980 would split the current "older child adoptions" award category into two groups and add foster child guardianships to both categories. The two new award categories would be for adoptions and foster child guardianships of children ages 9 through 13 years (defined as "pre-adolescent" adoptions and guardianships) and for those aged 14 or older (defined as "older child" adoptions and guardianships). Finally, H.R. 4980 would eliminate the award category tied to adoptions of children less than 9 years of age who are determined by their state to have special needs. Further, H.R. 4980 would base all awards on improvements a state makes in the rate (or percentage) of children moving to adoption (or guardianships). An improved rate would mean that the percentage of adoptions (or guardianships) achieved in the fiscal year for which an incentive payment is being determined is greater than the percentage achieved in the baseline year. Under H.R.