Karen Bass: “Today, I rise to talk about the nearly half a million young people in our Nation's child welfare system. Last month was…”

“Today, I rise to talk about the nearly half a million young people in our Nation's child welfare system. Last month was National Foster Care Month, a time for our country to come together to acknowledge the half million people in our system, the hundreds of thousands who work within the system day in and day out, and the millions of adults who have exited the system and are no longer in care. No one knows the child welfare system like the foster youth who have grown up in the system. Today, the Congressional Caucus on Foster Youth and the National Foster Youth Institute have brought more than 35 young people from all over the country to shadow their Members of Congress. I would like to take a second to thank the Members of Congress who are spending this morning learning from a constituent and delegate of the program about their personal experiences and ideas to make impactful change in the child welfare system. Each year, our participants have a real hand in making change. From the Chafee Grant extensions to the passage of the Families First Prevention Services Act to securing COVID relief for foster youth, this group's voices have changed our child welfare system forever.…”