On the recordJune 3, 2024
I thank the gentlewoman from Florida for heading up this Special Order hour. At this time, we have many Members in the Congressional Black Caucus who are concerned about this issue. I am so happy this evening that we have also been joined by not only Jonathan Jackson but by a member of the Ways and Means Committee, a mentor of mine, Representative Danny Davis, who has served as a social worker and has kept abreast of those formal studies by engaging and being passionate about foster youth. I thank the Congressional Black Caucus for shining a light on this particular issue. We must face it: These are our children. There are about 400,000 children currently in foster care, not counting the ones who are in informal arrangements of foster care. They are our children. They are children of color, and particularly Black children are disproportionately in the system. For example, I live in Wisconsin. While African Americans in Wisconsin make up only 9 percent of the population, almost a quarter of the children in foster care are African-American children. I can tell you that these are the most vulnerable kids in our country, but my God, they are also the most resilient children. Even the most resilient need our help and our support. As Congress, we must support them because, after all, these youth are our future workforce. They are our workforce, and who will support us if we don't support them? We just left May. May, of course, was National Foster Care Month.…
