Political Quotes

“Mr. President, with a weeks-long recess upon us, sometimes opportunities to make history get lost. I am going to take a few minutes to describe an historic opportunity to help vulnerable families and children at risk. I hope my colleagues rise to the occasion when Congress resumes its legislative work in September. The bipartisan, bicameral legislation called the Family First Prevention Services Act would give new hope to hundreds of thousands of children and their families. It would, for the first time, allow States to permanently invest Federal foster care dollars to safely keep families together, instead of ripping them apart. It passed the House by voice vote at the end of last month, and in my view, it ought to be an easy bipartisan win. I remain hopeful the Senate will come together to pass it in the months ahead. I want to take a few minutes to look back at how this proposal came together before describing what it can accomplish. In the mid-1990s, there was a debate in the Congress as to whether sending kids to orphanages was the right idea. It was obvious, in my view, that there had to be better alternatives. Along with many of my colleagues from both sides of the aisle, I saw an opportunity for our child welfare policies to empower and unite families, so I authored the Kinship Care Act. It said that aunts or uncles or grandparents who met the right standards would be notified and have first preference when it came to caring for a niece or nephew or grandchild.…”