National Adoption Month

Floor Speech

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Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, November is National Adoption Month.

Each November, families across the country finalize adoptions and celebrate the creation of new families and connections. On National Adoption Day, which is celebrated on the Saturday before Thanksgiving, a special effort is made to finalize as many pending adoptions as possible. Last year, over 4,000 adoptions were finalized on that day. While I am sure that this day will look a little different this year due to the coronavirus, I am confident that family courts and child welfare agencies will still make it a special day for many, many families--happy families--because they will be able to bring new ones into their families.

The pandemic has created significant challenges for the children and families in our child welfare system. With travel restrictions and limits on visitors in hospitals, adoptive parents are meeting their children for the first time ever over video chat instead of in person. Kids in foster care are having to wait longer for placements, and foster parents are facing the added stress of school closures. Court proceedings are taking place over Zoom. Despite the challenges, both new challenges and old challenges that can accompany adoption, parents in Iowa and across the country are still making the choice to open their hearts and homes to children in need.

Congress has worked in the past to reduce barriers that would-be adoptive parents face. I will continue my efforts of making sure adoption remains an option for children in foster care who can't be reunited with their families, women who are facing unexpected pregnancies, and all parents who are willing and able to provide safe and loving homes for kids in need. There were over 100,000 children in the foster care system who were waiting for adoption in 2019. That 100,000 was approximately one-fourth of the number of kids in foster care. Congress must work in a bipartisan way, as it has for many years, to make sure adoption can become a reality, not just a dream, for all of these kids. We must also make sure that child welfare agencies have the tools and flexibilities they need to serve the families in their communities.

For years in the Senate, I have worked to elevate the voices of youth in the foster care system. These young people are their own best advocates, and they can tell you that the thing they want the most is a caring and loving family and a permanent home. What would you expect from any of these young people who are moved from home to home maybe two or three times in a given year?

As I continue to work in Congress toward the goal of helping all children find their forever families, I will always keep the best interests of children at the forefront.

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