MSNBC Interview - Transcript

Interview

MSNBC Interview - Transcript

MSNBC INTERVIEW WITH SENATOR MARY LANDRIEU (D-LA) AND ROSIE O'DONNELL, FOSTER PARENT

SUBJECT: FOSTER CARE LEGISLATION

INTERVIEWER: NORAH O'DONNELL

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NORAH O'DONNELL: Rosie O'Donnell lent her star power to Capitol Hill today for a cause near and dear to her heart. She teamed up with Senator Mary Landrieu to introduce foster care legislation that would connect kids in foster care with responsible, caring mentors. Rosie, of course, has been a foster parent herself since the '90s, and Rosie O'Donnell joins me now live from Washington, along with Democratic Senator from Louisiana Mary Landrieu.

Great to see both of you. Thanks so much for joining us.

SEN. LANDRIEU: Thank you.

ROSIE O'DONNELL: My pleasure. Thank you.

NORAH O'DONNELL: Rosie, I know you're up there twisting arms, trying to get some support for this legislation. It is a serious issue, of course, because more than 100,000 kids are waiting for foster homes. What will this plan do?

ROSIE O'DONNELL: Well, it will provide a whole new community of potential foster parents, as well as touchstones for these kids to have mentors, somebody who is consistent and cares about them and is there to show them that they care and that they're worth, you know, loving and participating with another human being. And we're hoping that this will help the kids academically and in the future will help foster parents, you know, become more plentiful.

NORAH O'DONNELL: How is that arm twisting going, Rosie?

ROSIE O'DONNELL: It's not so hard, because the senator here has come up with an amazing bill. And there are very few senators who are against helping foster kids. So it's a wonderful cause to be involved in, and so needed. And I think that this is a brilliant way to get new people interested in this cause.

NORAH O'DONNELL: Senator, I know this is an issue you know a lot about. And of course, this mentoring act, as I understand, would authorize $15 million to establish statewide foster care programs, $4 million to begin an awareness campaign, and 20,000 (dollars) to forgive student loans.

Is this also an issue not just of funds, but also awareness about the problem?

SEN. LANDRIEU: Absolutely. I mean, there is a challenge to identify funding, and we're going to have to work on that. But it's also a great challenge to educate the people of America that while these families may be broken, these children aren't. They are definitely assets to our community. They are fixable. They are great assets, if we would just pay attention to them, try to connect them with families, ultimately, that would either adopt them or give them the permanency that they seek and they deserve. And his bill particularly helps to give them permanent, hopefully, academic mentors, because with help, these children can get 4.0s, they can go on to law school, they can go on to medical school, as opposed to the streets, to be homeless, or to the prisons for their lives to be wasted.

NORAH O'DONNELL: Yeah, Rosie, you know a lot about this topic. And what about that? If we don't take care of foster children, that they do, they end up as part of the criminal justice system.

ROSIE O'DONNELL: Well, it's very sad, because 80 percent of the kids who age out of the foster care system end up either homeless, in prison or dead. And that's a horrible statistic. And the fact is that states are not really good parents. I mean, it's a wonderful concept, after World War II, develop a foster care community and foster care concepts so that we could take in war orphans. But now these children are orphans of living people, who either can't or are unable to or unwilling to care for their own kids.

So the system is overloaded in every way, and we eventually, you know, hope to overhaul that and then bring a new approach to dealing with the new challenges of this community of orphans. But in the meantime, a bill like this one would do really wonderful things to the kids who are in there right now so that we could change that statistic from 80 percent of failure to 80 percent, hopefully, of success.

NORAH O'DONNELL: Rosie, in this, you know, economic times that we're in now, where people are cutting back, people are losing jobs, we're expecting another tough jobs report out on Friday, is it tougher for people to become foster parents? Do we see more and more people saying, you know what, I can't, even if I want to take on and help a child, I just can't because I don't have the money to do it?

ROSIE O'DONNELL: Well, you know, mostly people who do foster don't do it for the money. And the stipend that you get varies anywhere from $11 a day to $25 a day in some states. But, you know, people who do it really do it because they have a passion and a desire and a need to help children who are just waiting for one moment of safety, one taste of consistency, one feeling of family. And those people, I think, do it, you know, regardless of the income. But in these times, needless to say, everything is more difficult for everyone.

NORAH O'DONNELL: Rosie O'Donnell, Senator Mary Landrieu, great to see both of you teaming up on this issue. And thanks so much for coming on MSNBC to talk about it. We appreciate it.

ROSIE O'DONNELL: Thank you very much.

SEN. LANDRIEU: Thanks a lot.

END.

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