A resolution to express support for the goals of National Adoption Month by promoting national awareness of adoption, celebrating children and families involved in adoption, and encouraging Americans to secure safety, permanency, and well being for all children.

I ask unanimous consent the Senate proceed immediately to the consideration of S. Res. 474, submitted earlier today by myself, Senator Craig, Senator Bond, as well as Senator DeWine, Senator Fitzgerald, Senator Levin, Senators Santorum and Stabenow--those last names be added as cosponsors to the resolution.

I yield to my friend who cosponsored this resolution for his remarks prior to mine.

Mr. President, I am pleased and proud to join my colleague from Idaho. I have the opportunity this morning before this body to thank him for his extraordinary leadership on this issue and his tireless efforts. Despite all of the responsibilities he has as a leader of the majority party and all of the other issues that he leads, he always finds time for this issue. It is not an issue that has a lot of paid lobbyists associated with it because this is a coalition that is actually advocating on behalf of orphans. His leadership is particularly noted, and we are grateful for all the work that our Senators do for children, not only in our country but around the world.

While we do celebrate this month and recognize this month of November and mark this time noting our great progress and success, let me begin by saying, unfortunately, the number of orphans in the world is on the rise. Some experts predict an unprecedented number of orphans in the world--really in numbers not ever known by the world before. We have had world wars in the past that have caused the number of orphans to expand greatly, but in the midst of this century and this time not only do we have war and famine, but we have something the world has never seen before, and that is the epidemic of AIDS that is an orphan factory in Africa and India.

We come to the floor today to celebrate what successes we have achieved in the United States, and we will talk about those successes in a moment. The challenge is great. I look forward to working with Senator Craig and all Members of the Senate as we try to form a leadership team for the world to address this unprecedented number of orphans.

If I could just say one more word about AIDS, sometimes children are orphaned because a parent dies of heart disease or cancer, but those diseases usually just affect one parent, not two. Because of the nature of AIDS and the way this disease is transmitted, it actually works at killing parents in usually a quick amount of time, leaving children in the international community not single orphans but double orphans. So that is quite a challenge to the world.

Let me switch to a happy note. In America last year 120,000 children found loving and permanent homes, and approximately 12,000 of those children came from other countries to the United States to loving homes in all parts of our country; small towns in Idaho, very small towns in Louisiana, as well as to our larger metropolitan areas. And they were welcomed, of course, with happiness and celebration and have become parts of families. I am proud to say that over 100,000 children were adopted, children from the United States to American families right here at home out of foster care and, of course, infant adoptions as well. That was terrific.

Two million children live in adoptive homes today in our country. More extraordinary and more jolting and impressive is the fact that 6 out of every 10 Americans have been personally touched by adoption; either they themselves were adopted or they have adopted into their family or grandparents have received from their biological family adoptive grandchildren. The stories are endless and wonderful. We need to make sure this Government of ours is doing everything it can to connect children who need families because governments do a great job at many things, but raising children is not one of them. Children need to be raised by parents, preferably two parents, but at least one loving adult that can raise that child to be a contributing member of our society.

Our future truly depends on it. We can have all the great tax policies in the world, great health policies, great education policies, but it is parent to child, that carries future values from

one generation to the next. So making these connections is not only a feel-good thing to do, it is a necessary thing to do for the continuation of our great Nation and the world community and family.

Let me share briefly about some of the children waiting in my State. There are 500,000 children in foster care in the United States today. That is tragic. It is tragic and good and I will explain. It is tragic because children have been separated from their parents. Sometimes we could have done a better job of preventing that had we given more drug counseling on substance abuse or stronger educational benefits or job opportunities to those parents. On the positive side, sometimes children have to be separated from their families because, if not, they may literally die at the hands of parents who are not in their right mind and spirit. These children can sometimes be in danger.

While we try to protect, promote and develop a better system, the fact is, 500,000 children are in foster care, anywhere from the age of 1 month up to 21 years old.

These are pictures of some of the children in my State. There are many more. Some are young teens, children who are perfectly healthy, sibling groups. Cynthia is a beautiful child. She was born with cerebral palsy and needs special care and attention. This is a story of one child who gives everyone great inspiration. Children like this with the right love and attention can grow up to be Presidents, mayors of great cities, professors at our great universities. They just need love, attention, and care. That is what National Adoption Month is all about.

Let me in my brief time share a story about an extraordinary young woman who came out of an orphanage. I will tell the story and then show the picture because you will not believe it when I show the picture. I want to tell a story that Senator Craig and I know about that has touched our hearts that we want to share with you today.

A young girl, about 9 years ago, was left in an orphanage in Russia. We do not know too much about the circumstances, but what we know is she was severely disabled when she was born. She had spina bifida. She had a hole in her spine. In some places in the world, children born with disabilities are basically just left to die--even with disabilities that we have come to know in America can be fixed and corrected with good health care. But there are truly dying rooms around the world where infants and young children are born and left to die. They are not fed, they are not taken care of because there is no medicine, no doctors, and nobody can do anything, so they make a tough judgment: to feed the healthy children and leave the sick children to die.

This little girl was left in a dying room. But she would not die, basically. After 6 years of living, with very little support, a woman we know well showed up in one of our adoption agencies and was trying to find children in this orphanage to be adopted. She came across this child who was on the floor because she could not walk. She had no wheelchair but she crawled up and touched her jacket. She looked down at this child's eyes and saw something that obviously no one else had seen and decided to adopt this child. The orphanage kept saying: We don't want you to have this child; we want you to have a ``good'' child.

She kept saying: This is the child I want. I want this child with a hole in her back, the strong and beautiful little girl.

The long and short of the story is, this woman scoops this child up, brings the child to America, adopts this child as her daughter, and her name is Tatiana McFadden.

I want to show a picture of Tatiana, but no one is going to believe the end of this story. Tatiana represented the United States of America in the Para-Olympics in Greece this year and won the silver medal for our country, for America.

This is a picture of Tatiana, who is now 16 or 17 years old, one of the strongest, most courageous, bravest human beings I have ever met. She proudly carried the American flag over that finish line and won the silver medal in the Para-Olympics.

Senator Craig, my good friend from Idaho, and I hoped she would be our special guest at Angels in Adoption, but she was actually winning the medal as our event was taking place.

In honor of Tatiana McFadden, I wanted to speak for her and for the children she represents in America and around the world. This is Tatiana, receiving on our behalf, for the United States of America, the silver medal. She represents everything that Senator Craig and I want to share today about National Adoption Month.

There are many orphans waiting. They are not damaged goods. These are children who, through no fault of their own, have been separated from their parents for a variety of different reasons. They need and want families. They have a lot to offer not only to themselves but to their countries and their families.

We hope in November, as we gather around our Thanksgiving table, and as our Nation gathers and spends time on its knees thanking God for our many blessings which we have, remembering our blessings from the early founding of this country. As we gather around our tables and hold the hands of our children, let's think about the children who do not have parents and what we can do.

Every Senator can most certainly do something. Many Senators and House Members are doing a great deal.

My colleagues have been very gracious with this time, but I close by saying that tomorrow, on Saturday, many of our colleagues, House and Senate Members, will be participating at their courthouses all over America. We are happy to say that we will have 4,000 children adopted tomorrow, on National Adoption Day, an effort started by one judge, Judge Nash in Los Angeles, CA, who started this to call attention to children like Tatiana. All they need is someone to pick them up, hold them, love them. Basically the spirit that God has put in them will do the rest. That is what this month is about.

I thank my colleague for offering this resolution. I thank the Senators in the midst of their busy work schedule for pushing this resolution through. I thank the President for his great support and acknowledge President Clinton and First Lady Clinton's effort, now Senator Clinton, and President Bush and Mrs. Bush, for their good leadership on this issue--not just in America, as my colleague knows, but as President Bush advocates these policies around the world.

I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motion to reconsider by laid upon the table, and any statements related thereto be printed in the Record without intervening action or debate.

Mr. President, let me thank the Senator from Louisiana for her leadership on this issue and on the introduction of this resolution to recognize what we believe to be a very important month and a very important day for America, for America's children, and especially for the foster care children of America.

Tomorrow, November 20, is National Adoption Day. This month is National Adoption Month. Over the years, as we have worked to bring this to the attention of the American people and to people who would like to form families through adoption, we find this tremendously important. More than 3,100 adoptions of children from foster care will be finalized as a result of National Adoption Day. Of those who are in foster care, some 129,000 children wait for adoption. Senator Landrieu and I, over the last good number of years, have worked almost nonstop on this issue, not just for the foster care children of our country but for all children of our country who are seeking a permanent, loving, safe environment.

As a result of that effort, she and I and others on the House side took the old congressional coalition on adoption and created the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute. That institute is now one of the sponsors of National Adoption Month and National Adoption Day.

These efforts on the part of all of us, we hope, continue to build the kind of understanding and knowledge that is growing across America--that you can form a family through adoption. Adoption is a phenomenally viable option for couples who may not be able to have children naturally or who wish to expand their families, simply because they care so much about the future of children and who know that children who grow up in a safe, loving environment are going to be young people who become productive in our society instead of frustrated and oftentimes misguided in their adult efforts.

What I would like to do now is read the resolution and the President's Proclamation on National Adoption Month, because I think it speaks to the kind of cooperative effort that the Congress, that Mary and I and a good many others in this Senate and the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute have, with a lot of other alliances but very importantly with the President and the executive branch of Government.

This is the 2004 Presidential Proclamation on National Adoption Month, by the President of the United States:

By deciding to share their hearts and home with a child,

adoptive parents demonstrate great compassion and receive

many blessings in return. During National Adoption Month, we

recognize the generosity of adoptive and foster families who

are providing hope and love, and we encourage the adoption of

children of all ages.

In 2002, I signed the Promoting Safe and Stable Families

legislation that supports families and promotes adoption, and

last December I signed the Adoption Promotion Act of 2003 to

increase incentives to adopt older children. We have raised

the adoption tax credit to $10,000 per child and created the

AdoptUSKids website that has joined thousands of children

with adoptive parents. We are working hard to place more

children from foster care to permanent homes. This year, on

November 20, communities from all 50 States and the District

of Columbia will celebrate National Adoption Day by

finalizing the adoption of thousands of children by loving

families. And each one of those families will be enriched by

the addition of new members. By bringing care and hope into

other lives, individuals can fill their own lives with

greater purpose.

Now, therefore, I, George W. Bush, President of the United

States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by

the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby

proclaim November 2004 as National Adoption Month. I call on

all Americans to observe this month with appropriate programs

and activities to honor adoptive families and to participate

in efforts to find permanent homes for waiting children.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this fourth

day of November, in the year of our Lord two thousand four,

and of the Independence of the United States of America the

two hundred and twenty-ninth.

George W. Bush.

That is what our President has said. He and this administration, as have others, have worked very cooperatively with Senator Landrieu and me. Much of what we talk about and much of what the President talked about were activities and efforts initiated right in the Senate--the child tax credit and other efforts to facilitate and make easier for Americans the ability to adopt children and bring them into their homes to create that loving environment that we talk about, that we know is so critically necessary in the lives of young people as they grow up.

So I am tremendously proud to join with my colleague, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, as we work cooperatively together in the passage of this resolution and as we continue to work to foster the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute, to grow it.

Let me close by asking all Senators to become an active member with us in the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute, to participate in its activities and its purpose as we work to facilitate adoptions both here in this country and around the world.

I thank my colleague from Louisiana, and I yield the floor.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to speak as in morning business for up to 5 minutes.

I thank the President.

Madam President, I commend my colleagues from Louisiana and Idaho. It was a very touching story of the Senator from Louisiana which highlights the importance of adoption month. This is a wonderful effort that my two colleagues have launched. We are pleased to support them and the President's efforts and all those wonderful people who take adopted children into their home.

(The remarks of Mr. Bond pertaining to the introduction of

S. 3009 are located in today's Record under ``Statements on

Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions.'')

Reserving the right to object.

Madam President, reserving the right to object, I will not object to these remarks, but subsequent to that we will begin the postcloture discussion of the issue before the Senate.