September, 23 2008, 12:55pm EDT
CDF Applauds Congress for Passing Bill to Help Hundreds of Thousands of Children and Youth in Foster Care
Bipartisan bill helps find permanent families and keep siblings together
WASHINGTON
Today the Children's Defense Fund (CDF) commended Congress for
giving final approval last evening to a bill that will provide help to
hundreds of thousands of abused and neglected children and youth in
foster care. The Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act
(H.R. 6893) will help find permanent families for many of these
children through adoption or relative guardianship and ensure that more
siblings can stay together while in foster care, with relatives or in
adoptive families.
"There is nothing more important to children than family," said CDF President Marian Wright Edelman. "CDF
applauds Congress for reaching across party lines and stepping forward
to improve the lives of our nation's children and offering these most
vulnerable children meaningful family connections. Compared to those
who have not been in foster care, these youth are more likely to become
homeless, unemployed or to be incarcerated, and more likely to have
physical, developmental and mental health challenges. This bill offers
them new hope. These improvements are a vivid example of how by working
together we can improve all of our lives by putting children first."
Under the current system, youth in foster care are often forced out
of care at age 18 and have few resources to help them transition to
adulthood. This bill will help older youth remain in foster care longer
to increase their opportunities for continued education, employment or
other activities helpful to their futures. The legislation-considered
the most significant reforms for children in foster care in more than a
decade-includes provisions to help youth in foster care by:
- Promoting permanent families for children with relatives
by alerting relatives of children about to enter foster care so they
can intervene beforehand, helping children already in care leave to
live permanently with relatives when they cannot return home or be
adopted, and supporting Kinship Navigator programs to link children
living with relatives with the supports they need. - Keeping siblings together by encouraging their placement together in foster care, relatives' homes, or adoptive families or ensuring they stay connected.
- Increasing adoptions of older youth and children with disabilities or other special needs.
- Helping older youth in foster care increase their opportunities for success.
- Promoting educational stability and improved health outcomes
by helping children in foster care stay in school and minimizing moves
from school to school, and better coordinating their health care. - Increasing services and protections for American Indian children by offering Indian tribes direct access to federal support for foster care and adoption assistance.
- Expanding federal support for training of private agency and court staff as well as attorneys and others representing children who have been abused and neglected.
Key to gaining support for the bill's passage were testimonials from
youth who had spent time in foster care, grandparents and other
relatives raising children, and adoptive parents. More than 500,000
children in America are in foster care at any given time; about
one-fourth of them are being cared for by relatives. Each year, more
than 127,000 children in foster care are waiting to be adopted. More
than 26,000 older youth leave foster care-most at 18-without being
returned home or adopted.
For more specifics on the legislation, visit www.childrensdefense.org/priorities_childwelfare#foster.
For more information about the Children's Defense Fund, visit www.childrensdefense.org.
The Children's Defense Fund (CDF) is a non-profit child advocacy organization that has worked relentlessly for 35 years to ensure a level playing field for all children. We champion policies and programs that lift children out of poverty; protect them from abuse and neglect; and ensure their access to health care, quality education, and a moral and spiritual foundation.
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"Santos' constituents deserve real representation at home and in Washington, instead of a liar and a fraud with zero credibility," said Stand Up America's executive director.
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"Why did it take the MAGA House nearly two months to do anything about it?" asked Accountable.US spokesperson Derek Martin.
Santos, who was sworn in to represent New York's 3rd District in January, has faced criticism for dishonesty about his education, employment history, and religious background, and concerns have mounted about his net worth, claims of fraud in Brazil and the United States, potential campaign finance violations, and alleged sexual harassment of a former staffer.
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House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) "should've called for Santos to resign on Day 1," he argued. "It's too little, too late from the MAGA majority."
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\u201cIt is beyond time that George Santos is investigated for his campaign finance violations, but it may just be that him being a creepy boss is what gets him booted. Looking forward to the report from the House Ethics Committee.\u201d— Dr. Cindy Banyai (@Dr. Cindy Banyai) 1677794819
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"The 700,000 people who live in D.C. know our community better than anyone else and deserve self-determination," said the ACLU of D.C.
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Progressives expressed anger Thursday after U.S. President Joe Biden said that he would sign a Republican-authored resolution repealing criminal justice reforms recently approved by the elected leaders of the District of Columbia.
The GOP-controlled House claimed that the Revised Criminal Code Act (RCCA), enacted in January by city council members representing D.C. residents, would make it easier for people convicted of crimes to avoid punishment and contribute to higher crime rates. Last month, 31 Democrats joined 219 Republicans in passing H.J.Res. 26, which would nullify the changes to Washington's criminal laws that are set to take effect in 2025.
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Democratic D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser had opposed the RCCA but supported a Biden veto of H.J.Res. 26 due to the implications for home rule.
Journalist Austin Ahlman called Biden's decision "disgusting." Defending "evidence-based tweaks to the D.C. criminal code" through a veto, Ahlman added, would have had little to no impact on the president during the 2024 election cycle.
Markus Batchelor, national political director at People for the American Way, also condemned Biden, juxtaposing his purported support for democracy abroad with his unwillingness to defend it "for those Americans closest to him."
\u201cPresident Biden summoned the support of the Congress and a global alliance to defend democracy and the will of free people abroad \u2014 and won\u2019t even raise his pen to defend them for those Americans closest to him. https://t.co/zLrOX0ApSu\u201d— Markus Batchelor (@Markus Batchelor) 1677784766
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Prior to Biden's announcement, the ACLU's D.C. chapter wrote on social media, "The 700,000 people who live in D.C. know our community better than anyone else and deserve self-determination."
The group linked to a recent piece written by policy director Damon King, who argued that "in the name of democracy and common sense, the Senate must respect the District of Columbia's decision to pass the Revised Criminal Code Act."
\u201cDid you know that because D.C. is not a state, Congress can assert its will on us and stop us from implementing our own laws? \n\nThe 700,000 people who live in D.C. know our community better than anyone else and deserve self determination. https://t.co/cxwTD2LzBa\u201d— ACLU of the District of Columbia (@ACLU of the District of Columbia) 1677779280
"In order to overturn our democratic will," King observed, "opponents of the RCCA have spread misinformation about the bill."
Shortly after the D.C. Council unanimously passed the RCCA and then overrode Bowser's veto of the bill by a margin of 12-1, Slate legal reporter Mark Joseph Stern wrote, "If you only read conservative and centrist pundits, you'd think the District of Columbia is about to embark upon a frightening experiment to weaken or abolish criminal penalties for violent crime."
As he explained:
Fox News has devotedfrenzied coverageto the claim that D.C. is "softening" its criminal laws. Republican politicians like Sen. Tom Cotton [R-Ark.] have seized on the story, as have conservative commentators like Erick Erickson, who cited it as evidence that Congress should abolish self-governance in the district. The Washington Post editorial board opined that a new "crime bill could make the city more dangerous," claiming it would "tie the hands of police and prosecutors while overwhelming courts."
"This coverage all repeats the same two claims: that D.C. is poised to slash prison sentences for violent offenses, and that these reforms will lead to more crime," wrote Stern. "Neither of these claims is true."
He continued:
The legislation that D.C. passed in January is not a traditional reform bill, but the result of a 16-year process to overhaul a badly outdated, confusing, and often arbitrary criminal code. The revision's goal was to modernize the law by defining elements of each crime, eliminating overlap between offenses, establishing proportionate penalties, and removing archaic or unconstitutional provisions. Every single change is justified in meticulous reports that span thousands of pages. Each one was crafted with extensive public input and support from both D.C. and federal prosecutors. Eleventh-hour criticisms of the bill rest on misunderstandings, willful or otherwise, about its purpose and effect. They malign complex, technocratic updates as radical concessions to criminals. In many cases, criticisms rest on sheer legal illiteracy about how criminal sentencing actually works.
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The RCCA is not the only piece of D.C. legislation the House voted to rescind last month. In addition, 42 Democrats joined 218 Republicans in passing H.J.Res. 24, which would nullify the Local Resident Voting Rights Amendment Act.
That measure, enacted last year by the D.C. Council, would allow noncitizens who meet residency and other requirements to vote in local races.
The bill's fate in the Senate, and whether Biden would veto a resolution seeking to overturn it, remains unclear.
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