Jay Rockefeller: “I am proud and pleased to be part of the successful effort to pass the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997. Having…”

“I am proud and pleased to be part of the successful effort to pass the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997. Having worked to achieve the objectives of this bill for many years, I am very grateful to everyone involved in reaching today's result--the final passage of a significant bill that will help children and families in true need across the country for many years to come. This legislation is the culmination of extensive bipartisan negotiations between the House and Senate over the course of this year to enact the most effective ways to ensure the health, safety, and stability of America's most vulnerable population: abused and neglected children. The product of intense debate and sometimes difficult concessions on all sides, this bill has emerged as a positive first step in fixing our Nation's broken child welfare system. At the same time this process has demonstrated the undeniable benefits of bipartisan cooperation and compromise, it has also highlighted the mountain of work still left to be done on behalf of abused and neglected children.”