Angie Craig: “with the Senate's vote today on ``The Adoption and Safe Families Act,'' we are sending the President a landmark reform…”

“with the Senate's vote today on ``The Adoption and Safe Families Act,'' we are sending the President a landmark reform of the nation's foster care system and a bill that will make an enormous difference in the lives of many children in America. Every child deserves a safe, loving, permanent family. For a lot of us, it's inconceivable that this most basic need is out of reach for hundreds of thousands of children across the nation. Although we've tried to provide a safety net to protect children at risk of abuse or neglect, that safety net is failing all too many children. The problem does not lie with the vast majority of foster parents, relatives and caseworkers who work valiantly to provide the care needed by these children. Rather, the problem is the system itself, and incentives built into it. On one end, it's allowing children to slip back into abusive homes; on the other end, it's trapping them in what was supposed to be ``temporary'' foster care, instead of moving them into permanent homes. The Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 will bring more children home--to safe, permanent homes--and it will bring them home faster. It will change the culture of foster care with a number of fundamental reforms: Currently, to obtain federal funds, states are required to use ``reasonable efforts'' to keep families together.…”