Supporting National Adoption Day And Month
Floor Speech
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Mr. FORTENBERRY. I thank the gen tle lady from Florida for the time and also for her good words earlier.
Mr. Speaker, the selfless love inherent in adoption shows the remarkable capacity of the human heart to strengthen a fractured world one child in need at a time, and I am very glad that Congress today is taking the time to honor adoption.
I must add, however, that I am very disheartened that a bill to help Haitian orphans, which has passed this House, as the gen tle lady from Florida has said, and which has passed the Senate with amendments, has now been abandoned in secret meetings by this body's leadership.
The Help HAITI Act helps 1,200 Haitian orphans who were in the process of being adopted before the tragic earthquake hit that country. We could have passed this on Monday, and it could be law by now. Yet now, I understand, this bipartisan Help HAITI Act may be used as a vehicle for a controversial immigration measure for which there is no consensus in this body or across America.
While the legal status of these vulnerable Haitian orphans remains in limbo, they have fewer legal protections. They may not be eligible for critical resources, and they may be at risk of being returned to Haiti. Now, surely, we can act to solve this problem free of partisan provocation.
So, Mr. Speaker, I say this: These poor children and their heroic American families deserve better than what we are giving them today.
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