WASHINGTON – Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley today said that many families are rightly confused and frustrated with the adoption situations in several countries around the world.
Members of the Judiciary Committee listened to emotional testimony during a committee hearing about the difficulties families are having adopting children internationally. Grassley held the hearing in honor of National Adoption Month and to raise awareness about these families’ situations. Dr. Rick Wilkerson from Spencer, Iowa, testified at the hearing. He discussed his family’s experience adopting a child from Haiti following the country’s earthquake in 2010. The Wilkerson family has adopted several children both domestically and internationally.
“American families have opened their hearts and homes to children from around the world, but despite the successes and the positive impacts of international adoption, there are also challenges. There have been barriers for some families as other countries face internal conflicts and struggles,” Grassley said. “These children make families even stronger. So highlighting the difficulties they are encountering and promoting good public policy in this area is in the country’s best interest.”
In today’s hearing, Grassley highlighted the struggles that more than 400 families are currently facing in bringing home children from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The adoptions have been finalized by the home country as well as the United States, yet, despite the fact that the parents must provide financially and emotionally for their children who are physically in the Congo, they cannot bring them home. Grassley has contacted the State Department regarding the matter on behalf of the Iowa families. He has written repeatedly to Congolese officials to do everything possible to resolve the issue.
After today’s committee hearing, Grassley and other members of the Senate met with the Congolese ambassador to the United States to discuss the adoption issue and a way forward for these families, all of whom simply need immigration travel documents from the Congolese government to bring home the children.
Grassley has championed several policy initiatives that help families overcome some of the roadblocks that make it difficult to bring a child into a permanent home. His work includes the expansion of the federal adoption tax credit, which is now permanent and indexed to inflation, as well as authorship of several pieces of legislation that improve the ability of children to secure permanent homes.
Grassley is also the co-founder and co-chair of the bipartisan Senate Caucus on Foster Youth which works to raise public awareness and educate policymakers about the challenges facing foster youth, especially those who age out of the system with no long-term support structure in place.
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