Max Baucus: “I rise in support of the Promoting Safe and Stable Families Amendments of 2001. This legislation continues our support…”

“I rise in support of the Promoting Safe and Stable Families Amendments of 2001. This legislation continues our support for state efforts to reunify troubled families and to promote the adoption of children in foster care who are unable to return to their birth homes. It also authorizes additional educational assistance to former foster children in the Independent Living program. Abused and neglected children are among the most vulnerable of all the members of our society--it is important that we continue to look after their needs. This proposal mirrors that made by the President. I thank him for his interest in this issue. It is an important part of being a compassionate leader, ensuring that federal efforts to assist abused and neglected children continue. It also contains a new proposal offered by the President, authorizing a new grant program to mentor the children of prisoners, a particularly disadvantaged group. I commend him for that idea.”