Angie Craig: “I am very pleased that the tax reconciliation package we have passed today contains an amendment that I offered along…”

“I am very pleased that the tax reconciliation package we have passed today contains an amendment that I offered along with Senator Landrieu. That amendment is the text of the Hope for Children Act, which we introduced back in January as S. 148. I greatly appreciate the consideration this amendment has received from Chairman Grassley, who has long been a leader in the area of adoption and foster care. He and Senator Baucus, along with the staff of the Finance Committee, have been extremely responsive to me and my staff as we worked through this amendment, and I thank them for their support of America's adopting families. As my colleagues know, this legislation will continue and improve on two current tax provisions that are helping so many Americans who seek to form families through adoption: the adoption tax credit and the exclusion for employer-provided adoption benefits. These provisions are due to expire at the end of this year, and the Hope for Children Act will remove that sunset. It will also double the basic tax credit and exclusion, to $10,000. For a family adopting a child with special needs, the current credit of $6,000 will rise to $10,000; perhaps more important to these families, their credit will no longer be tied to cumbersome and inflexible IRS regulations that exclude a wide range of legitimate adoption expenses related to children with special needs.”