Political Quotes

“I thank Mr. Reichert and Mr. Doggett for this work, and the work of the Ways and Means Committee, which is a vital component to this holistic approach that we have now embraced dealing with human trafficking. The foster care system that many of us have embraced that needs overhaul, as a member of the foster care task force and caucus, as a member and founder of the Congressional Children's Caucus, I have been dealing with foster care children for a number of years. In fact, I served as a cochair of the Foster Care Task Force in Houston, whose purpose was to give relief to what was then called Foster Care Grandparents, whose grandparents were involved in the foster care system. That is the friendly side of foster care. But I think it is so very important to recognize that we are still facing that large gap of those youngsters who age out, along with youngsters who are 12, 13, and 14 who have been in the foster care system all of their life. We have heard the stories that they go from house to house, maybe some of them had 30 homes, places where they have lived, for a period of time that they have been in foster care. What I have seen as I have been on the streets of Houston when we spend a night out on the streets going places where we knew children and young people would be sleeping, that these were children who had either aged out, who had in fact run away, or been in foster care on the streets of Houston.…”