Recruiting Families Using Data Act of 2025

Floor Speech

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Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 579, the Recruiting Families Using Data Act.

This legislation is a good example of Congress doing the work our constituents sent us here to do. Last Congress, my former colleague, Dan Kildee, worked closely with Representative Feenstra to introduce this bipartisan bill, which is based on solid research and the fundamental principle that if we want to know what is best for foster youth and their families, we should ask them.

The result was this bill, which would require States to create a new family partnership plan to explain how they are identifying, screening, engaging, and supporting foster and adoptive families, in consultation with people with lived experience.

To me, one of the most critical aspects of this will be engaging with the child's family, whether it is by placing foster children with family members directly or making space for kin who can't be foster parents to still support the child and the foster parents.

Last Congress, we marked up this bill in the Ways and Means Committee and sent it to the floor with our unanimous consent. While it passed the House on a strong bipartisan vote, I was disappointed that the bill did not become law. I am glad to support it again. I believe it is a strong complement to the bipartisan legislation we enacted last year reauthorizing child welfare services, which included many good ideas from both sides of the aisle.

As we continue to hear that Elon Musk and his band of hackers are rampaging through Federal agencies, including the Department of Health and Human Services, firing policy experts, falsely accusing Americans of fraud, freezing and terminating investments that were directed by Congress, I hope we can return to the kind of partnership and genuine concern for vulnerable Americans that sparked both bills.

Move fast and break stuff might be a good model for technology companies, but it is wrong for the programs we have created to protect children.

Mr. Speaker, I support this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to support this good bill to help ensure that children in foster care are in safe, appropriate homes.

I further urge my colleagues to work with us to stop these indiscriminate, illegal layoffs and funding cuts which threaten to undermine the good bipartisan work we have done on behalf of vulnerable children.

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