Click
here to view our matrix of current list of adoption
legislation in progress.
Recent Updates
February
12, 2007 - To
date eight bills have been introduced into Congress which if passed,
would impact children’s services.
Please
visit our Legislation Matrix
page for more information on each bill, its sponsor, the intent and
action to date. Joint Council will continue to monitor the progress of
these various bills in the coming months.
November 28, 2006 - Joint Council President & CEO Tom
DiFilipo and Executive Director Jennifer Mellon Peterson met with U.S.
Representative Chris Smith's (NJ) office and staff from the House
Committee on International Relations to discuss issues surrounding child
welfare in Guatemala and Romania. We look forward to continuing our
close relationship with the Committee and Representative Smith's office.
November 15, 2006 -
Joint Council was
invited by the House Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights and
International Operations to testify at the hearing, “Hague Convention on
International Adoptions: Status and the Framework for
Implementation”. Joint Council President & CEO Tom DiFilipo testified
before the Subcommittee and brought his experience and expertise to the
issues and concerns surrounding Implementation of the Hague Convention.
Click here to READ a copy of Tom's
testimony. Click here to
VIEW Tom's testimony (Panel 3 begins at 1:44:00) at the House of
Representatives subcommittee.
ICARE Act (Intercountry
Adoption Reform)
September
2007
- The latest information about the ICARE (Intercountry Adoption Reform)
Act, can be accessed
here.
Natural Born Citizen Act
On February 25,
2004 Senator Don Nickles (R-OK), Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and
Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) introduced a bipartisan bill (S. 2128) granting
children born abroad to U.S. citizens, or adopted abroad by U.S.
citizens, the same rights as native-born children including the right to
run for President of the United States.
Note:
This bill has recently been introduced and is now in the Senate
Committee on the Judiciary. JCICS will monitor its progress and
update our website if and when it is passed.
Adoption Promotion Act of
2003
The Adoption
Promotion Act of 2003 (H.R.3182)
extends the Adoption Incentive Program for another five years and focus
greater attention on finding adoptive families for older children in
foster care. The legislation was passed by
Congress on November 17, 2003 and by
President Bush on December 2, 2003 and is now Public Law No:
108-145.
This bill
authorizes $43 million per year in performance-based incentives to
states that are successful in increasing the number of children adopted
from foster care. The bonus program, first created as part of the
Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997, has contributed to the
substantial increase in adoptions in recent years--from 31,000 in fiscal
year 1997 to approximately 51,000 in fiscal year 2002.
Despite recent progress made, many more children are in need of adoptive
families. At the end of fiscal year 2002, 532,698 children remained in
foster care, and 116,653 of the children in foster care had adoption as
their permanent placement goal. About half of the children waiting to be
adopted are over the age of nine. Today, national data show that a
child over the age of nine is more likely to remain in foster care
through his or her 18th birthday than to find an adoptive home.
The Adoption Promotion Act of 2003 will help to change that statistic by
encouraging
states to focus greater effort o
New Adoption Law Website
The National Center for Adoption Law & Policy at Capital
University Law School, located in Columbus, Ohio, released the nation’s
first comprehensive online compilation and synthesis of the law of
adoption. This new e-tool, available at
www.adoptionlawsite.org, provides free access to the adoption
related statutes and regulations, as well as the key cases and articles,
from every U.S. state and territory, along with federal and
international materials.
To read the Center's press release,
click here.
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