Supporting the goals and ideals of National Adoption Day and National Adoption Month by promoting national awareness of adoption and the children in foster care awaiting families, celebrating children and families involved in adoption, recognizing current programs and efforts designed to promote adoption, and encouraging people in the United States to seek improved safety, permanency, and well-being for all children.

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 1432) supporting the goals and ideals of National Adoption Day and National Adoption Month by promoting national awareness of adoption and the children in foster care awaiting families, celebrating children and families involved in adoption, recognizing current programs and efforts designed to promote adoption, and encouraging people in the United States to seek improved safety, permanency, and well-being for all children.

Madam Speaker, I would yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Nevada (Mr. Porter), the resolution's chief sponsor.

General Leave

Madam Speaker, far too many of our Nation's most vulnerable children long for nothing more than a safe and permanent place to call home.

As the de facto parents of foster children, it's our responsibility to ensure that each child who is unable to safely return home to their biological parents has the ability to achieve permanency through adoption. Sadly, too many children are languishing in the foster care system for far too long as they wait to be adopted.

There are currently 129,000 children who are waiting to be adopted out of foster care. These children, on average, will have to wait nearly two-and-a-half years in the foster care system before they are adopted by the family. A minute can be a lifetime in the eyes of a child. Imagine how a child feels as they wait nearly two-and-a-half years for a family to pick them.

Representative Weller and I introduced bipartisan legislation, which just passed the House, which would provide a variety of policy initiatives aimed at increasing the number of children who are adopted from the foster care system. The Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act extends, expands, and improves the Adoption Incentives Program. This successful program provides financial bonuses to States that increase the number of children adopted out of foster care.

I have to add that, sort of parenthetically, I started the subsidized adoption program in the Washington State legislature in 1971. There has been a very uneven spread of that concept across the States in this United States. So it's important that we at the Federal level set the standard and say to States, here's some money if you will think about doing subsidized adoptions for these kids.

Since the inception of this program, nearly 440,000 children have been adopted out of the foster care system.

The bill also would provide additional incentives for States to continue to increase the number of children who leave the foster care system for permanency through adoption or through guardianship placement with a grandparent or a relative caregiver.

Additionally, the legislation would provide adoption subsidy assistance to all special-needs kids--these are the ones that are the hardest to get adopted--rather than those children whose birth parents were eligible for welfare under rules that were in place in 1996.

The bill expands Federal adoption assistance by delinking eligibility for assistance from the now defunct AFDC program and by phasing in adoption subsidy to children by their age and their length of time in foster care.

And finally, the legislation would provide direct Federal adoption assistance to tribal governments who run their own child welfare programs. Tribal governments would be able to access the same service that is now available to the States. Such services will allow tribal governments to increase the number of Native American children that are adopted out of the tribal foster care systems.

The month of November marks National Adoption Month, and that's what this resolution is really all about.

As we celebrate the countless families who have opened their homes and their hearts to children who are in need of a home, I ask my colleagues to join us in supporting the goals and the ideals of National Adoption Month.

Every child deserves nothing less than a safe and loving place to call home. By working together in a bipartisan fashion, we can do our part to ensure permanency and success for all the children.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

I continue to reserve.

Madam Speaker, may I inquire as to how much time is remaining.

Madam Speaker, it has been a pleasure to work with Mr. Weller on these two bills and this resolution through the Congress. And certainly I have enjoyed working with him and have never felt that any courtesy I've extended him has been anything but reciprocal in our dealings. However, there has been on the floor here some discussion of some extraneous material that I struggle to hear how the connection was to adoption subsidies or options or foster kids, but I'm sure there was one someplace there--all the speakers at least mentioned it sort of in passing and then went on to talk about energy.

Now, as these adoptive parents, many of them ordinary folks, want to drive down to get the child at the adoption agency, they're going to have to buy gasoline. And gasoline has gotten out of control. Lots of people want to blame oil companies or speculators or a lot of other things. And the question is, do you really want to help those people?

Now, there is going to be a stimulus package coming out. And if we put gas stamps in it--the average person under 300 percent of poverty will spend $1,000 more a year for gasoline, so if we gave them gas stamps like we give them food stamps for $500, we could cut that price in half. And I hope that all my colleagues on the other side, if that happens to be in the stimulus package, will consider voting for it this time.

There is a question in my mind, however, about the description of what went on last night. It's as though the Democrats didn't propose anything. It's as though we just sort of walked around and fiddled around and looked at the sky. But, in fact, there was a very good proposal here on the floor. There was money for renewable energy standards. There was money for strategic energy reserve to be invested in renewable energy. There was royalty reform. Can you believe that the oil companies never give any money to the Federal Government?

And this bill last night said, look, we want to repeal the tax subsidies and make the oil companies pay their fair share for drilling on public lands. Now, that's land that belongs to you and me and the foster kids and the children who are being adopted. But the oil companies have some idea that they don't think they should have to pay any royalty when they suck the oil out and then sell it to us at four bucks a gallon. Now, that seems like a good proposal.

We also paid for the bill last night by taking $18 billion that was allowed in a loophole several years ago. We closed that loophole and said we're going to use it to do the future development of renewable energy in this country that needs to be done.

Now, by contrast, the Boehner bill that was brought out here had no payment for anything, just increase the national debt. That is the Republican plan for this country: Do whatever you want, spend whatever you want, drive up the national debt, and leave it for these foster kids and these adopted kids. They're going to pay for it. Most of the Members in here will be dead before we get anywhere near paying for the debt that's been driven up by this Congress. And yesterday's oil bill was just more of the same.

Now, the other part of it that's really sort of interesting, our bill required actually using the leases that they already have, sort of ``use it or lose it.'' They have millions of acres under lease, but they want to get something more out there somewhere, I don't know. If you go out 50 miles off the coast of California and Washington State, you're at about 10,000 feet. If you think you're going to drill for oil out there, you have never been on the West coast of this country and looked at what we have for an ocean.

So, this business about ``drill, drill, drill, oh, good, drill, drill, drill,'' it makes a nice slogan, probably goes on a bumper strip pretty well, but the basic assumption behind that bumper strip is that the American people are stupid. It seems like the Republican Party thinks that the American people are stupid, and if they can just get into chanting, ``drill, drill, drill, drill, drill, drill,'' that somehow the price of gasoline will come down. I don't know if that is some kind of a mantra, maybe it's some kind of magical thing they got from a witch doctor somewhere. But drilling everywhere is not going to bring down the price of gasoline.

We've seen in the last month gasoline go from $150 a barrel down to wherever it is today, somewhere below $100. And has gasoline dropped by 33 percent? Is gasoline down to $3 or down to $2.70? And why did it come down? Because we drilled? No. Because the speculators got worried. The speculators got worried that Americans were getting smart and they were figuring ways to get around without using gasoline. And so consumption has come down in this country, and suddenly the speculators are really worried.

What if the American people don't do what we expect them to do? What if they don't buy big gas guzzlers anymore? They buy cars that get 35- 40 miles per gallon. I drove from my house in Seattle to Spokane for the State convention, over the Cascade Mountains, over 5,000-foot peaks, and you know what? I got 49.5 miles per gallon.

Now, the oil companies are really worried that a lot of people are going to start doing that, and so the speculation on where the price of oil is going to be started coming down. But it didn't affect anything at the pump--maybe 10 cents, maybe five cents, who knows. But we didn't drill a single bit, and yet the gasoline prices came down. So what is it that makes them go up and what makes them go down?

Nothing in this bill from Mr. Boehner has anything whatsoever to say about speculation or about oil company profits, not one single word. All he says is, open it up, let them drill anywhere they want. Let them go and sink a drill. In fact, we got some votes out of the Republicans because they actually were drilling in places where the military said this kind of creates a problem, please don't drill there; don't let that area be open for drilling.

And so when people come out here and stand out here and say over and over again, ``we have to drill, drill, drill, drill, drill, that's going to fix it all,'' they haven't looked at our bill.

Now, the Senate is over there, and they're going to send us over a bill here shortly to extend the tax credits on wind and on solar and on geothermal because they know that renewable energy is the way this country has to go. We are not going to solve our problem by drilling inside the Continental Shelf of the United States.

If the President wanted to bring gas prices down, all he would have to do is release some of the oil out of the oil reserve. We've got millions of gallons of gasoline sitting out there. And if the market truly is what we say it is, if there is more supply, then the price should come down. Well, dump some of that reserve out onto the market. It was done once before and gasoline dropped about 15 cents a gallon, but not under this President. They want to keep it up there and keep talking about drilling because this administration has been an oil administration from the very first week. When the Vice President of the United States had in his office a great conference with all the oil people in this country and has kept secret for 8 solid years what was decided there, you have to wonder about what's happened to this country and the average taxpayer and the average person in this society.

So we're here today to deal with a few problems of some kids. And I really appreciate the efforts that have gone in by the bipartisan support on the committee. And I don't really like to get out here and talk like this, but you just can't stand here or sit here and listen to that baloney without ultimately saying, do they really care, or is it just about winning an election? Is it looking for a bumper strip that will work and that the American people will hear ``drill, drill, drill''?

They're going to do it all day long. Every single suspension bill has 20 minutes on each side. So on the Republican side, we're going to be treated to the same litany. It will be different people, I hope. I mean, I don't want the same person coming out here. They're probably lined up somewhere back in the cloak room getting ready to come out on the next bill. But the fact is the American people aren't stupid.

I was saying to my staff as we were listening to this, can you imagine grandma or mom or a father who is out of work? I mean, unemployment in this country is now over 6 percent; it's gone up. You've got banks crashing all over the place; you've got the Federal Government putting $85 billion into trying to save AIG, and you're talking about ``drill, drill, drill.''

I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on this resolution.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I am proud to rise in support of H.R. 6893, the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act, legislation I am proud to cosponsor with my chairman, Mr. McDermott.

This bipartisan, bicameral House-Senate agreement extends the Adoptions Incentives program, which has earned due praise for increasing adoptions from the Nation's foster care system. It improves the program by raising financial incentives for adopting older children who are the hardest to adopt, among other changes. That program expires in 2 weeks, so passage of this legislation is both necessary and timely.

But this bill does much, much more. It expands the eligibility of special needs children for Federal adoption assistance, promoting the adoption of thousands more children out of the foster care system in the coming years. Along the way, it places a priority on older children, children in foster care the longest, and sibling groups who are the hardest to find adoptive families.

The bill also promotes stronger family ties in caring for children removed from their own parents due to abuse and neglect, and expects States to do more to locate adult relatives like grandparents or aunts and uncles who can step in to care for such children. And by permitting child welfare agencies access to information from the child support program, the bill helps provide tools to help with that process.

It allows States to provide Federal payments to help those adults care for children. And it helps those adults obtain other assistance to ensure kids in their care can thrive. Instead of busting the budget, these pro-family changes actually save money by cutting expensive foster care administrative costs, while most importantly, improving the outcomes for kids in need of a loving home.

The bill also responds to concerns that too many youth today are ``emancipated'' from foster care at age 18 and end up on the streets, in jail, or worse. It offers more help for these older foster youth, providing for their care through age 21 as a State option. But like any responsible parent would expect, it requires able-bodied young people over age 18 to work, stay in school, or participate in training to receive the additional help. Like successful welfare reform policies of the 1990s, it conditions assistance on youths engaging in positive behavior.

The same goes for foster and adoptive youth under age 18. For the first time, they would have to stay in school for their foster parents to receive Federal financial assistance. That may be tough love, but it is far more loving than subsidizing high school dropouts as taxpayers often do today for a shocking share of young people in foster care.

I am honored that this legislation includes two provisions I have worked for years to pass and which will benefit children in foster care. First, it ensures equal access to foster care assistance for Native American children, allowing tribes to operate programs just like the States do today.

Second, it provides that all child welfare workers, whether employed by public or not-for-profit agencies, have access to the same resources for training so they can provide the best service to families and most of all children in foster care.

Madam Speaker, this legislation is good for children and for families. It is good for communities, and it is good for taxpayers. It is fully paid for, including by reducing unnecessary foster care administrative costs and by incorporating antifraud reforms proposed by the administration, amongst other savings. It is bipartisan, and includes the best of legislation developed by the House and Senate to better protect and support children. I urge all Members to support this excellent piece of legislation.

Madam Speaker, as this is the final major legislative activity in the subcommittee on which I serve as ranking member, I would like to thank the hardworking staff who have made this legislation possible. On the Ways and Means Committee Republican staff, I would especially like to thank Matt Weidinger, Margo Smith, and Brian Newell, who have helped me as ranking member of the Income Security Subcommittee.

Last, but not least, I would also like to thank Jack Dusik, who has handled much of my Ways and Means Committee activities for over 5 years. Jack has been a tireless servant of the American people and a great asset to me in representing the 11th Congressional District, and I wish him well as he moves onward.

Finally, Madam Speaker, I would like to extend my gratitude to my friend, Chairman McDermott, for his friendship over my years in Congress. It has been a real pleasure working with him as a strong partner in fighting for America's disadvantaged youth on the Income Security and Family Support Subcommittee.

Madam Speaker, I urge bipartisan support for this important bipartisan legislation.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I want to commend my friend and colleague from Illinois (Mr. Davis) for his efforts on behalf of families and his contribution to this bipartisan legislation.

Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from North Carolina (Ms. Foxx).

Madam Speaker, I have no additional speakers, so I will close for our side.

As the chairman and I have both stated, this is bipartisan, bicameral legislation, broadly supported. I would note I have a number of letters of support. I would like to insert into the Record at this point, Madam Speaker, a letter from the National Conference of State Legislatures, a letter from the Conference of Chief Justices, the Conference of State Court Administrators, as well as a letter signed by 581 national, State and local organizations from every State in the Union in support of this bipartisan, bicameral legislation designed to help kids, particularly those who need adoption.

September 15, 2008.

Hon. Harry Reid,

Majority Leader,

528 Hart Senate Office Building, Washington, DC.

Hon. Nancy Pelosi,

Office of the Speaker,

H-232, U.S. Capitol, Washington, DC.

Hon. Mitch McConnell,

Minority Leader

61-A Russell Senate Office Building, Washington, DC.

Hon. John Boehner,

Republican Leader,

Office of the House,

H-204, U.S. Capitol, Washington, DC.

Dear Majority Leader Reid, Speaker Pelosi, Minority Leader

McConnell, and Republican Leader Boehner: We are writing to

urge you to take necessary steps to ensure passage this month

of important improvements in supports for children and

youth in foster care, including new opportunities for

permanent families through adoption and relative guardianship

and other assistance for older youth transitioning from

foster care. The House unanimously passed the Fostering

Connections to Success Act in June and the Senate Finance

Committee approved a similar bill last week. Today, the

relevant committees announced agreement on H.R. 6893 that

reconciles the House and Senate bills. As 581 national and

state and local organizations from every state that advocate

for the children and youth who will benefit from these

improvements, we want to ensure that H.R. 6893, the Fostering

Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008,

will be passed during this session of Congress.

The Act has bipartisan support and is fully paid for. Its

important improvements will help hundreds of thousands of

children and youth in foster care by:

Extending and increasing incentives for adoption,

particularly incentives for the adoption of children with

special needs and older youth in foster care and making many

more children with special needs eligible for federal

adoption assistance.

Allowing states to offer, for the first time with federal

assistance, guardianship payments for children who are in

foster care but who have grandparents or other relative

guardians who want to care for them permanently outside of

foster care.

Making it easier for immediate relatives to step in to

raise children when their parents cannot by requiring

notification of relatives when children are removed from

their parents and grants to link caregivers with the services

their children need.

Offering important protections and supports for American

Indian children in foster care, by allowing tribes, for the

first time, the same direct access to federal foster care,

adoption assistance and relative guardianship funding that

states have.

Increasing opportunities for success for older youth in

foster care as they transition into adult life by allowing

them to receive federal foster care payments beyond the age

of 18.

Improving educational opportunities for children and youth

in foster care, which will also increase their opportunities

for later success.

Promoting the health care of children and youth in foster

care.

Expanding training opportunities for relative guardians,

staff in private agencies and the courts, and attorneys and

others representing children.

These reforms encompass many of the critical improvements

that former foster youth, adoptive parents, relative

caregivers, and others have been requesting of Congress for

years. We commend you for your leadership and commitment to

addressing the needs of our nation's most vulnerable children

and youth. The organizations below support timely enactment

of these important improvements for children and youth in

foster care.

Respectfully yours,

Adopt America Network, Alliance for Children and Families,

American Academy for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry,

American Academy of Adoption Attorneys, American Academy of

Pediatrics, American Association of Children's Residential

Centers, American Humane Association, American Professional

Society on the Abuse of Children, American Psychological

Association, The Arc of the U.S., Association on American

Indian Affairs.

Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, Black Administrators

in Child Welfare, Inc., Catholic Charities USA, Center for

Law and Social Policy, Child Welfare League of America,

Childhelp, Inc., Children Awaiting Parents, Children's Action

Network, Children's Defense Fund, Children's Rights.

Coalition of Labor Union Women, Coalition on Human Needs,

Community Action Partnership, Council for Health and Human

Service Ministries United Church of Christ, Dave Thomas

Foundation for Adoption, Docs for Tots, Family Violence

Prevention Fund, First Focus, First Star, Foster Care Alumni

of America.

Foster Family-based Treatment Association, FosterClub,

GrandFamilies of America, Grandfamilies Teens, Generations

United, Holt International, Jewish Labor Committee, Juvenile

Law Center, The Kids are Waiting: Fix Foster Care Now

Campaign, Kidsave, Lutheran Services in America.

Mental Health America, National Advocacy Center for the

Sisters of the Good Shepherd, National African-American Drug

Policy Coalition, Inc., National Alliance to End

Homelessness, National Association of Black Social Workers,

National Association for Children's Behavioral Health,

National Association of Counsel for Children, National

Association of County Human Services Administrators, National

Association of Counties, National Association for the

Education of Homeless Children and Youth.

National Association of Social Workers, National CASA

Association, National Center on Domestic and Sexual Violence,

National Center on Housing and Child Welfare, National Child

Abuse Coalition, National Children's Alliance, National

Collaboration for Youth, National Committee of Grandparents

for Children's Rights, National Council for Adoption,

National Council of Jewish Women.

National Foster Care Coalition, National Foster Parent

Association, National Indian Child Welfare Association,

National Network for Youth, National Policy Partnership for

Children of the Incarcerated, National Relative Caregiver

Consultants, National Resource Center for Youth Services,

Native American Children's Alliance, NETWORK, A National

Catholic Social Justice Lobby, North American Council on

Adoptable Children.

Orphan Foundation, Pre-K Now, Prevent Child Abuse America,

The Rebecca Project for Human Rights, Religious Coalition for

Reproductive Choice, Service Employees International Union

(SEIU), Specialized Alternatives for Families and Youth of

America, Teaching-Family Association, United Cerebral Palsy,

United Church of Christ Justice and Witness Ministries.

United Neighborhood Centers of America, United Way of

America, USAction, Voice for Adoption, Voices for America's

Children, Youth Law Center, Zero to Three.

Conference of Chief Justices

Conference of State Court Administrators

Government Relations Office, Arlington, Virginia, September

15, 2008.

Hon. Harry Reid,

Majority Leader, Hart Senate Office Building, Washington, DC.

Hon. Mitch McConnell,

Minority Leader, Russell Senate Office Building, Washington,

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 6893) to amend parts B and E of title IV of the Social Security Act to connect and support relative caregivers, improve outcomes for children in foster care, provide for tribal foster care and adoption access, improve incentives for adoption, and for other purposes.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on this bill under consideration.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I might consume.

Children in foster care are sometimes called our forgotten children. We are here to banish that thought forever. We are here to provide children in foster care the same things that all children need, family, support and an equal chance to succeed.

With that goal in mind, the House unanimously passed legislation in June to improve the Nation's child welfare system. The bill we are considering today is a modified version of that legislation, and it reflects an agreement with Senators Baucus, Grassley and Rockefeller, who have been working on similar legislation.

This agreement maintains all the critical provisions in the House- passed bill, such as helping grandparents and other relatives who want to permanently care for children in foster care and extending assistance to thousands of children who now age out of foster care every year on their 18th birthday.

In addition, the legislation now includes a provision that will begin to make sure that all special needs children are eligible for adoption assistance, not just those who come from a family that is eligible for a welfare program that no longer exists.

When a child is removed from his or her home because of abuse or neglect, government, on behalf of society, becomes legally responsible for that child. All of us, therefore, act as parents to children in foster care. But for too many foster care children, we fail to fully live up to our parental responsibilities.

We fail to provide them with permanent homes. We fail to meet their health and education needs, and we fail to help them find their way in the world.

Perhaps the most obvious example of our failure is when foster children are literally pushed out into the streets when they are 18 years old. No parent I know abandons their children at age 18, and yet that is what our Federal policy for foster care does.

It says to kids to have been abused or neglected, who have been removed from their homes, or who have been placed many times in multiple foster homes that we expect more of them than we would expect of anyone else, including our own children. We displace them from their homes and from any meaningful financial support, and tell them, make it on your own, you are on your own.

Another example is our failure and the inconsistent effort to help foster children stay connected to their families. We have a system that tells grandparents that they will be denied any assistance if they become legal guardians for a foster child. This is contrary to the growing base of research illustrating that children do better living with relative guardians than they do living in traditional foster care.

Additionally, siblings are too often split apart at the time of placement. Just when a foster child most needs their brother or sister, they are sometimes separated from them.

Ensuring school stability is yet another area where we too often come up short. Not enough is done to ensure children can stay in their current schools when they are placed in foster care. We rob them of the one place where they may actually feel secure.

We also hear too many stories about foster children not receiving adequate health services, especially for mental health. Furthermore, we have a special duty to ensure the prescription medications foster children are receiving are effective and appropriate, instead of quick and easy.

Finally, we don't provide adequate assistance for Native American children who are removed from their homes and then cared for in the tribal communities.

The Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act would provide new supports and protections to address many of the concerns I just outlined. The legislation would allow States to extend foster care up to the age of 21, giving young men and women more time to get an education and become truly self-sufficient.

Recognizing that many grandparents and other relatives want to provide loving, permanent homes for children in foster care, this bill would provide Federal payments to relatives who become legal guardians of children for whom they have cared as foster parents. It also requires improved efforts to keep siblings together when they are removed from their homes.

The measure would require increased oversight on health care needs of foster children, focusing on the assessment, the treatment of health conditions, continuity of care, and monitoring the use of prescription drugs. There is also renewed attention paid to ensuring educational stability for children in foster care, including avoiding frequent school changes.

Additionally, this bill gives tribes equal and fair access to Federal resources dedicated to keeping vulnerable children safe. For the first time, a tribal child welfare program would directly receive Federal foster care funding.

The legislation would also provide new resources to ensure all child welfare workers have equal access to training, which ultimately results in better care for children.

This bill extends and improves incentives for States that increase the number of children adopted out of the foster care system. To ensure that we are

adequately helping all families adopting special needs children out of the foster care system, the bill will phase out a requirement that an adopted child's birth parents be eligible for welfare under outdated rules from a program that no longer exists.

The legislation includes two provisions that save money and thereby ensures that the bill is completely budget neutral. The first provision would clarify the uniform definition of a child for tax purposes to ensure that the earned income tax credit and other tax benefits are being provided to the families for which the benefits were intended.

The second provision would allow the Treasury Department to improve its management of the government's short-term operating cash. This language, which has been recommended by the GAO and proposed by the administration, would permit investment of cash in a broader number of institutions, thereby reducing the current concentration of risk and increasing the rate of return.

I want to thank, again, my ranking member, Jerry Weller, who is going to leave us. He has been a real partner in striving to work for and improve the lives of children in the foster care system. His efforts will be missed when he leaves Congress at the end of this session, but enacting this bill will surely send him out on a high note.

Before I yield to Mr. Weller, I would like to talk about another Member of Congress who is not with us today.

The passing of Stephanie Tubbs Jones was a great shock to all of us who worked with her. We were always impressed by her tireless energy and her infectious smile.

Stephanie was a true champion for vulnerable families and children. In fact, her first legislative achievement in Congress was a bill designed to improve training opportunities for caseworkers in the child welfare system.

In recognition of Representative Tubbs Jones' efforts to help vulnerable kids, this bill names the primary source of Federal funding for the Social Security Act for Child Protective Services after her, as well as making several improvements to the program.

The Stephanie Tubbs Jones Child Welfare Services Program will help at-risk children for many years and decades to come, just as she did during her life.

In conclusion, this bill does not address every challenge confronting children in the welfare system, but will take a major step toward correcting many of the system's shortcomings. I only wish Jerry was going to be here to work with me while we put a bigger bill through next year.

This legislation is bipartisan, budget neutral, and good for kids; therefore, it deserves the support of every Member of the House, as it did when it passed unanimously some months ago.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Stark).

(Mr. STARK asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Davis).

I yield the gentleman an additional minute.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I think we are having a discussion today about the tale of two bills, actually. The bill that we have before us here today is really landmark legislation, and as Mr. Weller has said, it is the product of bipartisanship here in the House and actually, bicameral.

I talked to Senator Grassley; we talked about various aspects of the bill so that there was open communication on this issue. And what we've produced from that is landmark legislation that is a significant step forward for children, for foster children, probably the biggest step in more than 10 years. And I think when the Congress works together for the common good, things get done in a very positive way.

Children are America's future, and today we're making an investment in that future, and in our own. We all want our children to be connected to their family, and this bill expects the same for foster children. We want our children to feel like they are in a loving, permanent home, and this legislation expects no less for foster kids. We want our kids to go to a school and have decent medical care, and again, we've done that in this bill, or we've begun the process. Finally, we want our children to have the best chance to succeed in life, a desire that did not end on their 18th birthday. This bill shares in that hope for kids.

This bill says to foster kids, you're not forgotten. There is a future and the future begins today. I want to encourage all my colleagues to support this bill.

Chairmen get the unique opportunity of kind of borrowing a lot of ideas from other people. I took some from Danny Davis and some from Stephanie Tubbs Jones and some from Mr. Weller, and we put a bill together.

Even chairmen shouldn't get all the credit, because staff people like Nick Gwynn and Sonya Nesbit and Sean Hughes on our side have played a major part in talking our way through this bill.

In contrast, we have the energy bill which was brought out here and we continue to hear people talk about as though there was no hope of working with the Senate.

Now if the Republicans in the Senate would like to work with the Democrats, I think we can put a bill together. We did it on child welfare. Certainly we ought to be able to do it on something as important as energy.

But to write off legislation and say, oh, the only bill that could pass out of here is the only one that could pass through the Senate, that's simply not respecting the legislative process. The Republicans in the Senate really have to make a choice. They either support American taxpayers and consumers and talk about new energy jobs, or they do what the big oil companies want. That's a very simple choice.

I think that it's unfortunate if we in this House give up and say, well, the Senate won't come to their senses; they won't do anything reasonable on energy. They did reasonable things on child welfare because they cared about this country's kids. I think, in the Senate, they care about this country's welfare, and they're going to do something reasonable on energy.

So all this talk about only the House can produce a perfect bill to be rubber-stamped by the Senate, it didn't work in child welfare. They had to make their changes. We will see some

changes in that Senate bill, if they're thinking about the common good, and not about election on the 4th of November. If it's all about elections, we won't get a bill on energy out of the Senate. But if there is a desire to deal with the common good for this country, then we will look at the comprehensive bill that was put together over here. And actually some Republicans voted for it. Now that shows it can be bipartisan, even in the House, on a very contentious issue. I think that the fact that it's over in the Senate bodes well. We have a whole week yet for them to come to their senses and send us a bill back.

I yield back the balance of my time and encourage everyone to vote for this bill.

I thank my colleague from Illinois for yielding this time.

I certainly am in very, very strong support of this resolution. I think that it is very important that we pass this bill, goals and ideals of National Adoption Month. I, too, have seen the impact of children having to be in foster care for long periods of time.

And as a grandparent of two and reminded on a constant basis of the fragility of children, and particularly their self-concept and how they interact with other people and their need to be in loving homes, with parents who really want them and make them feel accepted and help them succeed from birth through adulthood, it makes a huge difference in the life of a child to be in a stable environment instead of being moved from foster home to foster home.

I admire tremendously the people who open their homes and open their hearts to children who are not their birth children, and I commend them for being willing to do that and want us to pass this resolution and acknowledge those people.

But I think one of the most important things that we could do for all families in this country, not just those who are good foster parents, not just those who open their homes to become adoptive parents, but those who are struggling every day with their own children, is to do what we possibly can to bring down the price of gasoline and fuel oil.

We are facing a major problem in this country. Families are facing major problems in this country because of the high price of gasoline.

I received a letter from a Boy Scout recently who said to me, ``I'm afraid we're going to not be able to continue to go to church on Sundays because of the high price of gasoline.'' Those are the kinds of things that tear at any person's heart because you know that that's coming from the heart of a child who has heard his parents talking about how the high price of gasoline is affecting their family, and it's certainly affecting everyone in this country. And yet we have a do-nothing Congress that has not been willing to take up that issue.

I am, again, very happy that we're dealing with talking about the needs of foster parents, talking about promoting adoptions. However, what we could be doing is some real action to bring down the price of gasoline and truly, truly help American families.

Instead, when given the options of doing that, this Democrat majority refuses to do it. What they do is they bring up sham bills, bills that are hoaxes and illusions to the American people and say, well, yes, we have been asked all summer long to drill, to create more supply, and then they bring up bills that don't do that, that in fact make it more of a problem to be able to create additional supply. And that's what happened on this floor yesterday.

We started out last year by trying to compare the promises that were made by the Speaker--who was then minority leader--and the majority leader in terms of the promises that they made and what they were doing. Well, all along the way it's been promises made, promises broken.

They said they would have the most open, most bipartisan Congress ever in the history of this country, and what do they do? They start out immediately by bringing bills to the floor that haven't gone to committee and that are not allowed to be amended. They continue to do that. They did that again yesterday.

The bill that they brought up did not go through the committee structure. In fact, I read the bill last night, and I meant to count how many committees but there must have been eight or 10 committees that this bill was supposed to go through. It went through none of them. It was written in the Speaker's office. Nobody got a chance to see it until about 12 hours before we were going to vote on it. It was 290 pages long. It was brought to the floor with no opportunity to amend it.

The Republicans had one opportunity to have an impact on the bill, and that was in a motion to recommit. And in that motion to recommit, we offered a bipartisan bill, a bill called the Peterson-Abercrombie bill put together by Democrats and Republicans, and we offered that as an option to the bill that was being brought up because the bill that was voted on last night is going to lock up over 90 percent of the oil reserves off the coasts of this country and put them out of reach for us permanently.

And I want to talk about how it's not been only the people in charge of this Congress--the Speaker and the majority leader, they're the ones who are in charge; they've broken every promise that they have made. They even promised in 2006 that we would have a commonsense energy plan that would bring down the price of gasoline. Well, we've been here almost 2 years. Not until last night did we get a bill, and we know that's not going to bring down the price of gas--but even the rank-and- file Democrats who promised their constituents that they would vote for bills, even sponsored bills, that they then would not vote on.

I want to mention some of those and quote them. Many of them also say they want to stimulate the economy, but almost every single one of them voted against this bipartisan bill authored by Representatives John Peterson of Pennsylvania and Neil Abercrombie from Hawaii. Mr. Peterson is a Republican; Mr. Abercrombie is a Democrat. Their bill would lower gas prices on behalf of working families and small businesses.

There were 24 Democrats who were cosponsors of the Peterson- Abercrombie bill who voted against that bill last night after they said they would vote for it. Many of them promised their constituents that they would vote for it. And I want to give some examples of that.

Representative Nancy Boyda, Democrat from Kansas, who was a cosponsor of the Peterson-Abercrombie bill, voted against it when given an opportunity. However, earlier in the month, she issued a press release that promised that she would work to get this bill passed. She said, ``I have been working with a large, bipartisan group of Representatives to develop a comprehensive, commonsense energy bill. Our [Peterson- Abercrombie] bill would provide sorely needed relief for Kansas families. It will help create energy independence for America and millions of jobs to help stabilize our struggling economy.'' Representative Nancy Boyda, Democrat, Kansas, press release, 9/04/08.

She issued that press release and then voted against the very same bill she had told her constituents she was working to get passed.

Representative Baron Hill, Democrat of Indiana, a cosponsor of the Peterson-Abercrombie bill, once said, ``I hope this bipartisan bill will indeed be brought to the floor.'' But when given a chance, he voted against it.

Again, in a press release dated August 14, 2008, he said, ``I hope this bipartisan bill will indeed be brought to the floor for a vote when we return to Washington in September.'' Hill said, ``It would provide immediate relief, while also bolstering development of new energy sources in order to move this country closer to energy independence.'' Again, Representative Baron Hill, Democrat, Indiana, press release August 14, 2008.

These press releases show that what the press here in Washington is reporting is that the bill that was brought up last night by the Democrats was only brought up to provide cover for Democrats who are in vulnerable seats this fall. There was never any intention of that bill becoming law. They wanted to

give them a chance to say they voted for drilling when in fact the bill doesn't provide for additional gas and oil.

It's never going to be passed by the Senate. The Senators, even Democratic Senators, have said the bill is dead on arrival in the Senate.

Another Democrat who was a cosponsor of the Peterson-Abercrombie bill who also voted against it was Representative Steve Kagen, Democrat from Wisconsin.

Here is a quote from the Herald Times in Wisconsin, 9/13/08. ``Kagen, who signed onto the bill Tuesday, said the Abercrombie-Peterson bill 'really is a comprehensive energy policy and a roadmap forward. That bill has the balance in investing in renewable sources. It raises royalty (fees) from those who are drilling and it doesn't limit drilling to four or five States,' Kagen said.''

The headline on that story was ``Congress Sitting on An Energy Hot Seat.''

Speaker Pelosi has said over and over again that they're going to create an energy strategy that's going to make it look like vulnerable Democrats are voting on real energy reform without actually doing it. She stated that herself. But they went a step further than that. These people cosponsored a bill and pledged to support it and then voted against it when given a chance to do it.

Madam Speaker, I would like to include in the Congressional Record today the list of all 24 Democrats who were for this bill before they were against it.

Again, yesterday, though, the House Democrats in charge denied Republicans the opportunity to a full debate, an honest vote on the American Energy Act, the Republican bill that does do all of the above to help working families and small businesses dealing with record fuel costs.

But this fight is not over. We are going to continue to bring this message to the American people. It's important that the American people know that the Democrats are in charge, they are the ones responsible for the high gas prices, and I hope the American people will hold them responsible this fall.

Speaker Pelosi and her leadership team have made no bones

about their elaborate strategy of making it look like

vulnerable Democrats are voting on real energy reform without

actually doing it. But these Democrats took it a step

further: They cosponsored a bill and pledged to support it

and then rejected it when given an up-or-down vote. Here is a

list of all 24 Democrats who were for it before they were

against it: Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-HI), Rep. Sanford Bishop

(D-GA), Rep. Dan Boren (D-OK), Rep. Nancy Boyda (D-KS), Rep.

Dennis Cardoza (D-CA), Rep. Jim Costa (D-CA), Rep. Bud Cramer

(D-AL), Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX), Rep. Artur Davis (D-AL),

Rep. Lincoln Davis (D-TN), Rep. Bart Gordon (D-TN), Rep. Gene

Green (D-TX), Rep. Phil Hare (D-IL), Rep. Baron Hill (D-IN),

Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX), Rep. William Jefferson (D-

LA), Rep. Steve Kagen (D-WI), Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-PA),

Rep. Charlie Melancon (D-LA), Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-PA),

Rep. Solomon Ortiz (D-TX), Rep. Collin Peterson (D-MN), Rep.

Ciro Rodriguez (D-TX), Rep. Mike Ross (D-AR).

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Illinois for yielding.

As a proud member of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption, I rise in strong support of H. Res. 1432. This important resolution recognizes the goals and ideals of National Adoption Day and National Adoption Month by promoting and raising national awareness of adoption and children in foster care, as my colleague from Nevada was just explaining. I commend him, the gentleman from Nevada (Mr. Porter), for working in a bipartisan matter to bring this important resolution to the floor, a resolution that celebrates the children and the families involved in adoption, as well as the current programs and efforts designed to promote adoption.

As was said by my colleague in Illinois, I was an OB/GYN physician for nearly 30 years before coming to the Congress back in 2003, and I am especially passionate, Madam Speaker, about protecting children and their right to life by encouraging adoption.

Madam Speaker, adoption brings joy to many loving families who cannot have children of their own or who simply wish to welcome even more children into their homes and into their hearts. Both National Adoption Day and National Adoption Month, which will be recognized on November 15 and, indeed, throughout the entire month of November, raise awareness nationally for the more than 129,000 children who are currently in foster care and looking, almost begging, for those permanent homes.

I wholeheartedly believe that raising awareness for adoption, as this resolution does so well, will help place more children in those loving homes. However, I believe that we should spend more than just 1 day, or even 1 month, during the year raising awareness on this issue. Both children and parents greatly benefit from adoption, and I want to applaud all individuals in my home State of Georgia and across this country who work so tirelessly to bring joy to these families who sometimes have very little joy.

Madam Speaker, I want to urge all my colleagues, and I'm sure they will, to support H. Res. 1432.

Madam Speaker, I'd like to thank the gentleman for yielding.

As I spoke earlier in regard to this bill in support of adoption and adoption week, certainly it's a great resolution that our colleague, Representative Porter from Nevada, brings forward.

But I, too, wanted to take the opportunity in my few minutes to talk a little bit more about this energy situation.

I think that the problem is that a lot of people in this country--and certainly it would appear that the leadership of this House, Ms. Pelosi, the Speaker, and the leadership of the Senate, the Majority Leader, Mr. Reid of Nevada--are completely convinced that fossil fuel is a bad thing and it needs to be stamped out, eliminated; kill that sucker dead as soon as possible.

The quotes that I have heard, I think Senator Reid said, ``Fossil fuel,'' which includes, of course, coal and petroleum and natural gas, ``Fossil fuel is poison, and we need to get rid of all fossil fuel in the good old U.S.A. by the year 2020.''

Madam Speaker, when I asked during the August recess about whether or not she would come back and allow some drilling to obtain our own domestic sources of fossil fuel, she said, ``I want to save the planet.'' She hit her fist on the table and said again, for emphasis, ``I want to save the planet.''

A spokesperson for the Sierra Club, maybe it was the president of the Sierra Club, Madam Speaker, said it's a good thing that American people are now having to pay these astronomical prices for petroleum.

In other words, the idea is this is such a horrible thing, this burning of coal, which, by the way, generates 65 percent of our electricity, this driving cars and trucks and using gasoline and diesel fuel in our trains. Literally, our transportation system couldn't function without fossil fuels.

Now there may come a day, and hopefully there will come a day, when we will be able to wean ourselves off of fossil fuel and come up with some other alternatives, alternatives like wind and solar and bio- products and ethanol that absolutely give us great efficiency for our needs, electricity and transportation, and cause us absolutely no harm and that we have a tremendous abundance of all of these alternatives and renewables so that we're not dependent on anybody. That is kind of a euphoria, and hopefully it will one day occur. But we don't know for sure that it might not be opening up Pandora's box, Madam Speaker. We don't know that.

While it's true that greenhouse gases probably do cause a little bit of global warming--

I mean, these things might cause some harm, but how do we know that eventually we might create a country of alcoholics by burning all of this ethanol in our automobiles? People today are starving to death because they don't have jobs, and I think that's the first priority.

Let's get this economy back on track, and let's get a decent energy bill and do it right now.