Katie Porter: “I would like to applaud Chairman McDermott and Ranking Member Weller for their leadership in bringing forward this major…”

“I would like to applaud Chairman McDermott and Ranking Member Weller for their leadership in bringing forward this major piece of legislation that will change so many lives across our country. We have a lot of challenges in our different communities, and one of the largest challenges is how we can help our foster children. Can you imagine a child sitting in a living room, maybe 5 or 6 years old or maybe 10 or 12 years old, sitting in a living room watching television or maybe playing a game. Two strangers come to the door, knock on the door, and say, 'You're now leaving. It's time for you to leave this family, and we're going to take you to a new family.' Can you imagine the pain of that child? And in some cases it happens time and time again. Imagine two strangers showing up out of the blue to tell you that you have to move to another family. Also imagine if you are a child that goes from family to family that you may not have the right prescription for your glasses and your family may not know that you need glasses, or you may get numerous tetanus shots as you go from family to family. Mr. Speaker, these are some of the challenges that our foster kids are facing today in a system that is broken and needs our help and our assistance now more than ever, and we need to find creative ways to help these children and to help these families. I have two children. Each are in their twenties. And I can assure you that after the age of 18, they keep coming home.”