Jay Rockefeller: “for many years, Senator Mike DeWine and I have worked with a bipartisan coalition to promote adoptions and to strengthen…”

“for many years, Senator Mike DeWine and I have worked with a bipartisan coalition to promote adoptions and to strengthen Federal funding to help abused and neglected children, especially through the Safe and Stable Families program. Senator DeWine has been a real leader especially in the key area of defining reasonable effort to protect children. We are joined in our effort by Senators Landrieu and Craig, both well-known advocates for adoption and leaders of the Adoption Caucus. President Bush called for an increase of $200 million for this program in his State of the Union address and his budget. In OMB's mid-session review, the administration changed its request from $200 million in mandatory money to discretionary funding. Since then, the House of Representatives added $70 million in new funding in their Labor-HHS-appropriations bill. Children suffering from abuse and neglect are among our most vulnerable children. In 1997, Congress enacted new legislation to make the health and safety of a child paramount, and to stress the importance of providing every child a permanent home. The act imposed new time frames for States to consider adoption. Since then, adoptions from foster care have almost doubled. But these families need support to address the special needs of these children. Currently, there are over 800,000 children in foster care. About 1 million cases of abuse and neglect are substantiated each year.”