Don Nickles: “Last month we celebrated National Adoption Month. In 2003, Americans opened their hearts and homes to over 20,000…”

“Last month we celebrated National Adoption Month. In 2003, Americans opened their hearts and homes to over 20,000 orphaned children born overseas. In order to adopt these children the families had to submit extensive paperwork and work with three federal agencies in order to be approved to adopt a foreign born child and to be able to bring that child home to America. The Intercountry Adoption Reform Act that I am introducing today along with Senators Landrieu, Craig, and Inhofe streamlines the process families go through to adopt a child from overseas by eliminating unnecessary paperwork and consolidating the federal functions into one office. Over the last year we have received many comments about the bill from groups representing adoption professionals as well as comments from the administration. In response to these comments, we have revised our original bill to incorporate many of the suggestions provided to us and to address some of the concerns expressed. Two major changes have been made. First, we have added enforcement provisions.”