S.Amdt. 419

SA 419. Ms. LANDRIEU submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by her to the bill H.R. 1268, making emergency supplemental appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2005, to establish and rapidly implement regulations for State driver's license and identification document security standards, to prevent terrorists from abusing the asylum laws of the United States, to unify terrorism-related grounds for inadmissibility and removal, to ensure expeditious construction of the San Diego border fence, and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

On page 231, between lines 3 and 4, and insert the following:

sense of congress on orphans

(a) Congress makes the following findings:

(1) It is estimated that, by the end of 2003, there were 143,000,000 orphans under the age of 18 years in 93 countries in sub-Sahara Africa, Asia, Latin American, and the Caribbean.

(2) Millions of children have been orphaned or made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS. The region most affected by HIV/AIDS is sub-Sahara Africa, where an estimated 12,300,000 millions orphans of HIV/AIDS live.

(3) To survive and thrive, children need to be raised in a family that is prepared to provide for their physical and emotional well being.

(4) The institutionalization of a child, especially during the first few years of life, has been proven to inhibit the physical and emotional development of the child.

(5) Large numbers of orphans present dire challenges to the economic and social structures of affected countries, and such countries that ignore such challenges at their peril.

(b) It is the sense of Congress that--

(1) the United States Agency for International Development should develop and fund a comprehensive, long-term agenda for reducing the number of orphans;

(2) the strategy under paragraph (1) should include policies and programs designed to prevent abandonment, reduce the transmission of HIV/AIDS to parents and their children, and connect orphaned children with permanent families through adoption; and

(3) humanitarian assistance programs funded with amounts appropriated in this Act should be required to promote the permanent placement of orphaned children, rather than long-term foster care or institutionalization, as the best means of caring for such children.