Expressing support for designation of May as National Foster Care Month and acknowledging the responsibility that Congress has to promote safety, well-being, improved outcomes, and permanency for the Nation's collective children.

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 1339) expressing support for designation of May as National Foster Care Month and acknowledging the responsibility that Congress has to promote safety, well-being, improved outcomes, and permanency for the Nation's collective children.

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

I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, the month of May marks National Foster Care Month, which provides us with an opportunity to recognize the unsung heroes, that is, the frontline workers and the foster parents who work tirelessly to improve the lives of our most vulnerable children, and to reaffirm Congress' commitment to foster care. We have a responsibility to work with State officials to ensure that they have the resources they need to care for these children and to help them move to a permanent home as quickly as possible.

Today, there are 463,000 children in the foster care system. While the number of children placed in care has recently declined, far too many children must wait far too long to safely reunify with their parents or find a new family to call their own. Right now, the average length of stay for a child in foster care is nearly 16 months. That is a significant amount of time in the life of any child, much less those who have been maltreated or separated from their parents, their siblings, their friends, and their community.

More than 120,000 children are currently waiting to find a new family to call their own through adoption. Children who are waiting to be adopted spend an average of nearly 2\1/2\ years in foster care as they await a new family.

Sadly, nearly 30,000 children left foster care or emancipated from the system in fiscal year 2008 without finding a permanent home, leaving these young people on their own as they transition from foster care to adulthood.

While we clearly have, still, lots of work to do, Congress made great progress in the last 2 years to improve the outcomes of vulnerable children in care. In 2008, Congress passed, with Jerry Weller on the Republican side and myself, bipartisan legislation called the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act.

This bill provided additional services and support to children in foster care, promoting the connection of children in care with their relatives and communities, and providing additional support for caseworker training. It also allowed States to extend foster care services to older youth, up to the age of 21, so that these young people can receive critical support services as they transition to adulthood, as they age out, so to speak.

And, as States began to grapple with fiscal restraints, severe fiscal restraints as a result of the recession, Congress stepped in to provide nearly $1 billion in targeted State relief for foster care programs as part of the Recovery Act.

While progress has been made over the last few years to support our national foster care system, there is plenty of additional work that still needs to be done. More focus must be placed on providing additional Federal support for prevention services to at-risk children and their families. By providing more resources that are targeted at preventing the incidents of child maltreatment and safely serving children and families in their own homes, we can ultimately reduce the number of children who are placed in foster care.

Foster kids, like all children, can and do grow up to make lasting positive impacts in their community and in the world. Many of you probably have read a recent article in The Washington Post that profiled Jelani Freeman, a foster child who completed a master's degree in history at American University, worked for 3 years in youth-related positions in the District, and graduated from Howard University Law School earlier this month.

I urge my colleagues to pay tribute to these remarkable young men and women in May, and every month of the year, by joining me and my colleague, Representative John Linder, and President Obama in recognizing May 2010 as National Foster Care Month and supporting this bipartisan resolution.

I reserve the balance of my time.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not present.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of H. Res. 1339, which expresses the House of Representatives' support for the designation of May as National Foster Care Month and recognizes the important role that foster parents play in the lives of children across the country. There are nearly 500,000 children in America's foster care system. Many of these children come from troubled backgrounds and turbulent pasts. America's foster parents take these children in and show them the care and attention that they deserve as they wait to be reunited with their families or adopted into new, loving families.

I thank Chairman Levin for his leadership in bringing this bill to the floor. I also thank the sponsor of this legislation, Congressman McDermott, for working to increase public awareness about the critical role that the foster care system plays in our society.

In my home State of California, there are nearly 80,000 children in the foster care system, a majority of whom were placed there by the State as a result of parental abuse or neglect. Foster parents play a critical role in the lives of some the most vulnerable youths in California and across the country. They help hold our Nation's social fabric together by ensuring that thousands of young people in this country stay on track towards successful futures.

Designating May as National Foster Care Month is a way to encourage responsible and caring adults to serve as foster parents. Unfortunately, there is currently a shortage in the number of foster parents available. There are less than 3 foster homes for every 10 children living under the State's care.

While the foster care system provides a vital service in our society, children in foster homes often face special challenges. In 2008, 123,000 of the 273,000 children in the foster care system were waiting to be adopted into new homes. However, by the end of the year, only 55,000 were adopted out of foster care. Foster children who are not adopted or reunited with their families often end up ``aging out'' of the foster care system. These children who ``age out'' of the system are in need of resources to help them afford higher education opportunities, find affordable housing and quality health insurance, and achieve steady employment. This is a social demand to which Congress must respond.

Past legislative initiatives to invest in our country's foster care system include the Adoption Assistance and Safe Families Act of 1980, the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997, and the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008. These initiatives recognized the need to provide increased resources for foster families and a sense of stability for foster children, 65 percent of whom experience a minimum of seven school changes while in the system. Congress must continue working to improve the foster care system, so that all children within this system can develop and mature in young adults with bright futures.

I salute the selflessness and hard work that foster parents demonstrate each day when they care for a child who had been displaced from his or her family. I offer my sincere support for dedicating the month of May as National Foster Care Month. I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting H. Res. 1339.

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

This resolution is one that, in a perfect world, would not be necessary. In that perfect world, every child would live with two married parents, and every parent would be unfailingly caring and loving for that child. But even as we promote the best environment for raising children, we know that, sadly, that is not the way the world works. So institutions are needed to ensure that, when biological parents don't adequately care for their children, other responsible adults step in. That is the role played by our foster care system and, most important, the thousands of foster parents who make foster care work to protect children.

Every day, foster parents care for about 500,000 children across America who cannot safely remain with their own parents. For that, as this resolution expresses, our Nation says ``thank you.''

While we celebrate those who make personal sacrifices to protect and care for children, we must also admit that this system doesn't always work as it should. Just like not every biological parent is up to the task, not every foster parent or caseworker meets expectations either. Sometimes children are subjected to repeated abuse, or worse, from within the very system designed to protect them.

The subcommittee on which I serve has had many hearings on such cases in which children have met with horrific abuse while under the supposed supervision of the child welfare system. Those hearings serve as a sad but important reminder why these systems require constant monitoring to ensure children are adequately and appropriately protected.

One of those ongoing efforts is to better involve relatives in the care of children. This is a promising approach, with bipartisan support, which recent laws have encouraged. But we won't make the needed progress until the Department of Health and Human Services issues guidance about the ``notification of relatives'' provisions of section 103 of the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008.

I urge the Department to act without further delay so relatives can play a greater role in the care of vulnerable children. Doing so during this month of May, which this resolution designates as National Foster Care Month, would be a fitting statement of our common desire to better protect children and also relieve some of the strains placed on the foster parents and caseworkers today. That is the intent of what Congress passed and the President signed into law now approaching 2 years ago.

This resolution reminds all Americans of the role foster parents especially play in helping children who have already missed out on so much in life. These children deserve to make progress like any other child. Through the efforts of tens of thousands of dedicated foster parents, they often do, against great odds. We owe these dedicated individuals our thanks and continued support.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, the number of children in foster care continues to rise in the United States. The current population exceeds 500,000 children. Most of these children are placed into foster care due to parental abuse or neglect making them vulnerable to adverse situations and negative social outcomes. Luckily, the foster care system serves as a safety net for our most vulnerable children. Therefore, both children and parents of the foster care system rely and depend on Congress to improve permanency and support systems for them.

Even though children who enter foster care remain in care for an average of thirty months many of them spend the majority of their childhood being placed from family to family. Without a permanent family, frequent moves from home-to-home and school-to-school creates a difficult level of instability to recover from. As a result, children face poor academic performance and higher rates of grade retention, absenteeism, tardiness, truancy, and dropout. Moreover, those that age out of the system do so without the necessary educational and job training skills. Quite naturally, these factors contribute to the risk of emotional and behavioral problems that lead to very negative future outcomes later in life. Therefore, it is necessary that Congress promotes the safety and well being of children placed into foster care.

I want to acknowledge all the individuals--including, foster parents, community advocates, mentors, and others--in the child welfare workforce for their dedication and commitment to improving outcomes for children placed into foster care.

I support H. Res. 1339 and hope that the month of May be designated as National Foster Care Month to provide an opportunity to acknowledge the accomplishments of the child welfare workforce, foster parents, advocacy community, and mentors and the positive impact they have on children's lives. I encourage my colleagues to support the resolution.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of H. Res. 1339, to designate May as National Foster Care Month.

Nearly one half million children are currently in foster care. This is a sobering statistic, and one that we must tirelessly work to reduce.

For many children, a positive permanent outcome can be found in reunification with their biological parents, or adoption into a new family.

However, far too many children languish for years without getting the help and love they deserve from permanent families. In 2008 over 10% of children leaving foster care, nearly 30,000 children, did so through emancipation and without the family support they deserve.

Equally alarming, for 2008 the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System estimated that there were 1,740 child fatalities resulting from abuse or neglect. This is simply unacceptable.

With the passage of the 2008 Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act, Congress made a significant commitment to reforming our nation's foster care system, giving states and families new tools to cut down on the amount of time that kids spend in foster care and more opportunities to find permanent homes. Yet, more can and should be done to make the system work for foster children.

I am pleased that we are taking the opportunity today to discuss the pressing needs of our foster care system. Children in foster care deserve our unwavering support. We must redouble our efforts to find them permanent families and until then, ensure their safety while in our care.