Mike DeWine

That is what I find offensive and alarming. And I think you ought to fix it.

How about if the child had more--how about more basic things? How about more significant--not procedural things, but how about basic facts about the child?

Well, I mean, if it is in your hard file.

And I am not hearing any answer to why you are doing it that way. And I would really like to move on.

Whoa. Is that not important? I mean, I can see notification being important. That is procedure.

What I am hearing you tell me is, we have a new system. It is a Cadillac system.

Well, if your answer to me would have been, Senator, it just costs too darn much money to do it, I might understand it.

The only reason you go to a system like this and put the money into it is so that your caseworkers have more time to be caseworkers.

If the system is getting in the way of that or if the caseworker cannot use the system or if the caseworker is working around the system, we have a problem.

I draw the line when the system came into effect.

Well, that is not--I am sorry. That is not what Ms. Ashby just told me.

We just appreciate your interest and again thank you for requesting this GAO report.

It is also, of course, about accountability. And ultimately, and most importantly, it is about putting the safety and the health and well-being of thousands of children first, above all else.

How many more months and years can we ask these children and teens to wait until they have a safe and loving home?

We have made the welfare and safety of these children our top priority.

I am going to continue to have hearings. And we are going to keep digging for facts and findings.

These kinds of reports make us all sick. And the CFSA needs to understand we are not going anywhere, none of us are going anywhere.

This is about, we know, resource needs. This is about proper management of those resources and the services provided.

Well, you know, if there is a target population that is likely to re-offend, it is your target population.

Because we are dealing with the safety of the people of the District of Columbia and the visitors to the District of Columbia. And I think it is very important.

And let me just say, as a former prosecutor and also someone who, as lieutenant governor of the State of Ohio, one of my responsibilities was to oversee our prison system, that the special population worries me more than the other…

Why did you not file it?

So the figures that I cited, of course, are old figures in the sense that they were up to May of 2002.

Let me just say that Senator Landrieu is absolutely right. There is a lot that we have to do.

All I was saying, and it is a minor point, all I am saying is, the initiation to release a child to be eligible for adoption is a different thing from the filing of the adoption procedure.