Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008

Floor Speech

FOSTERING CONNECTIONS TO SUCCESS AND INCREASING ADOPTIONS ACT OF 2008 -- (House of Representatives - September 17, 2008)

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Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Madam Speaker, today is a good day for the more than 4 1/2 million grandparents in this Nation who are raising over 6 million children. Today is a good day for the 80,000 grandparents in Illinois who are raising their young grandchildren, and the 36,500 who are living with kinship caregivers. These families have told Members of Congress for years that they needed more support and that the system wasn't working for many children, and especially for African American kids.

Today we can tell them that we heard you and we are doing something about it. I commend Chairman McDermott, Ranking Member Weller, as well as Senators Clinton, Snowe, Grassley, Baucus and Rockefeller for their commitment to reforming foster care.

I rise in strong, unwavering, and resolute support for H.R. 6893. This compromise between the House and Senate advances child welfare in many areas. In particular, it recognizes that guardianship is an important path to permanency for tens of thousands of children in foster care.

In August 2007, the GAO confirmed something that my congressional district and the foster care community has known for years--that African American children are overrepresented in the foster care system, and that subsidized guardianship is a key Federal policy that can help thousands of children into permanent, loving homes.

I thank Chairman McDermott and Ranking Member Weller for including many of the provisions supporting kinship caregivers that I have championed for years. Specifically, the bill includes four core elements of my bill, H.R. 2188, the Kinship Caregiver Support Act, which I introduced with Representative Tim Johnson and which Senators Clinton and Snowe championed in the Senate.

It allows States to use Federal funds to support family caregivers raising relatives in the foster care systems.

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman's time has expired.

Mr. McDERMOTT. I yield the gentleman an additional minute.

Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. It provides funding to establish kinship navigator programs; it requires notification of relatives when a child enters foster care; it extends eligibility for independent living services and education training vouchers for youth who exit foster care after age 16; and it allows States to waive nonsafety-related elements of the licensing requirements that may not apply to families.

In addition, I am very happy that the bill ensures that families that currently receive subsidized guardianship under the current Federal waiver program will be eligible under the new program. This provision protects over 6,000 children in Illinois, as well as the thousands of children in other States who benefit from the waiver program.

So again, Madam Speaker, I want to commend Chairman McDermott and Ranking Member Weller, and I also want to congratulate my colleague, Mr. Weller, as he prepares to leave Congress after a stellar career, and I thank Chairman McDermott for acknowledging the work of Stephanie Tubbs Jones. This is an excellent bill, and I urge its passage.

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