Adoption Incentives Program

Floor Speech

Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, last year, working together, Republicans and Democrats produced one of the most far-reaching improvements to our Nation's child welfare system in over a decade. The Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 included a number of policies designed to increase the number of adoptions of special needs children in foster care.

Unfortunately, the Omnibus appropriations bill that the Senate is considering this week includes a provision that overrides the Adoption Incentives improvements included in the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008.

I have been told that it was not the intention of the drafters of the Omnibus appropriations bill to override the improvements to the Adoption Incentives Program and the Democratic leadership intends to correct this problem in the future.

The right thing would be to correct this problem in the underlying bill and I filed an amendment that would have accomplished this. Unfortunately, I was told by the Democratic leadership that they would not allow the bill to be changed at all.

I am not happy that I was not permitted to fix this problem in the omnibus bill. This unfortunate outcome, where real progress in increasing the number of adoptions is potentially jeopardized, highlights the perils of rushing legislation through in a partisan manner and not consulting with the committees of jurisdiction.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. GRASSLEY. I do want the members of the adoption community to be assured that I will do everything in my power to make sure this correction is made and that adoption incentive funds are made available. I will be happy to introduce legislation with my partner on the Senate Finance Committee, the chairman of that committee, Senator Baucus. We can base the legislation on my amendment to reinstate the adoption incentives improvements.

Source