Todd Tiahrt: “I know there is some concern, it is a very big decision to move children away from their birth parents into an adoptive…”

“I know there is some concern, it is a very big decision to move children away from their birth parents into an adoptive situation. I do not think the States should take it lightly or we should take it lightly. But in some situations, as the gentleman from Indiana has pointed out so adeptly, we have some parents that just choose not to be good parents by their very actions. The way the system is, there is no incentive to move them unless the States take initiative, like Kansas has, to move them into a situation. I am reminded of a young girl named Halie, who was 2 years old, who refused to eat her dinner and her parents tied her to an electric heater; and once she got caught into that system, they went through every different family service available, and she did not get out of foster care until she was 18 years old, 16 years caught into the system. We must provide incentives to move these children out of this kind of situation into adoptive homes when the parents, by their very actions, choose not to be good parents.”