Political Quotes

“H.R. 3286 is intended to promote family values, avoid prolonged unnecessary litigation in adoptions and to get away from race-based tests in child placement decisions. I support families, but title III of the bill is anti-Indian family legislation and fails to accomplish all three of these goals. When the Resources Committee considered H.R. 3286, it voted on a bipartisan basis to strike title III of the bill because it fails to put an end to prolonged litigation over Indian child adoptions, will create new impediments to protect abused and neglected Indian children, and raises constitutional issues. The Indian Child Welfare Act [ICWA] was enacted in 1978 to address a long-standing problem unique to Indian children. At the time, at least 25 percent of all Indian children were either in foster homes, adoptive homes, or boarding schools. Private and public welfare agencies were removing Indian children from their homes at unprecedented rates. And in many cases, where removal was warranted, agencies were ignoring available homes in Native communities. Many of these Indian children have grandparents, aunts and uncles who are willing and able to provide good homes, but were denied placement because they didn't know the children were in need of placement. As a result, Indian children were being removed from their tribal communities in a process the Chairman of the Select Committee on Indian Affairs called cultural genocide.”