Amy Klobuchar: “first of all, I would like to thank Senator Blunt for his leadership. We have worked side by side on these issues for so…”

“first of all, I would like to thank Senator Blunt for his leadership. We have worked side by side on these issues for so many years, and I am really pleased--as he noted--that there has been a lot of focus on this issue of the adoption tax credit and not only how it needs to be fixed in any tax bill and make sure it is maintained, but, in fact, it should be expanded on. I thank him. We have both been advocating for that. One of the reasons I am so involved in this issue is, in my State of Minnesota, we have historically had a lot of adoptions. One is international adoptions. We have one of the highest rates of international adoptions in the country. We have families who have opened their hearts to kids from Vietnam to Guatemala, to Nepal, to Haiti. I have had the opportunity to witness the power of adoption firsthand when I served for 8 years as the Hennepin County attorney--which is the largest prosecutor's office in our State. We also have civil jurisdiction so one of the things I worked on was speeding up the amount of time it took for foster kids to get out and into permanent homes. I was able to see firsthand those loving parents who would do anything to bring these kids into their families. When you see it internationally, it just breaks your heart if it goes on for years and years and years. Right now, domestically, over 425,000 children are living without permanent families in our foster care system.…”