International Adoption - Hague Convention

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this resolution, and yield myself such time as I may consume.

This day has been long in coming.  And while I still have some reservations about certain provisions in the bill, it is a very good day.  I might add parenthetically that today happens to be my birthday.  And passage of this measure would certainly be the most memorable of birthday gifts.

I want to thank our chairman, Ben Gilman, and my ranking member, Sam Gejdenson.  My friend and colleague, Earl Pomeroy, who is the father of two adopted children from Korea.  And our colleagues from the Ways and Means Committee, Nancy Johnson and Dave Camp, who have been leaders not only in this effort but on other adoption initiatives.   A number of key officials at the Department of State contributed substantially to this effort and their advice and input are genuinely appreciated.

I also want to express my appreciation to Senators Helms, Biden and Landrieu, with whom the amended bill was carefully developed in the course of extensive consultations.

And finally, I want to thank the many adoptive families, adoption experts and child services organizations that have been so generous with their encouragement and counsel on the many difficult issues that we have had to confront.  At our hearing on the bill last October, I promised to do all I could to see that this would be an open process, and that their concerns would be heard.  I believe that promise has been kept, Mr. Speaker, and that the extensive input we received has resulted in a bill that merits wide support.

Mr. Speaker, I think many of my colleagues are aware that for me this is no ordinary piece of legislation.  And intercountry adoption is not some abstract or theoretical policy question.

This past April 6, my family marked the 25th anniversary of the arrival of my younger daughter, Kara, who was airlifted out of Vietnam during "Operation Baby-Lift", just days before the fall of Saigon.

I cannot express to this House how profoundly her arrival changed all our lives.  Her mother, Katy, her sister, Kirsten and I often reflect on how much richer and fuller our lives are because she is part of our family.  But our experience is far from unique.  It is shared by hundreds of thousands of families across the country.  Including a number of my colleagues in this House who have adopted children from abroad.

Intercountry adoption is not the answer to all the problems affecting children around the world.  But it has given loving homes and a chance in life to needy children who could not be cared for in their countries of origin.

When the process works it results in the successful placement of happy, well-adjusted children with responsible parents who will love and care for them.  But problems—including some very serious problems—do occur.  And while most of the leading international adoption agencies maintain high ethical and professional standards, sadly this is not always the case.

Documented abuses range from the charging of exorbitant fees by so-called "facilitators" in some countries to child kidnaping.  Baby smuggling.  And coerced consent from birth mothers.

In some cases, information has been improperly withheld from adoptive families with regard to the child's medical or psychological condition.  And tragically, some adoptions have been disrupted because the adoptive families were poorly prepared for their parenting responsibilities as a result of the failure of the agency to provide necessary pre- and post-adoption counseling.

Such concerns have caused a number of countries, including Russia, Romania and Guatemala, to actually suspend overseas adoptions until safeguards can be put in place.

For example, last March, a special U.N. investigator reported to the Human Rights Commission that Guatemalan babies have been reduced to "objects of trade and commerce."  According to her report, high-ranking lawyers, doctors and judges in Guatemala were involved in a series of abuses, from falsifying birth records to tricking or drugging frightened birth mothers into signing over their babies. 

This is why the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption is of such importance.  And this implementing legislation is so critical.  It will help eliminate these abuses and enable both birth parents and adoptive families to participate in the intercountry adoption process with full confidence and a greater sense of security.

We should also understand the importance of U.S. leadership on this issue.  As the largest "receiving country" for adopted children, the United States played a prominent role in negotiating the Convention.  Since Americans adopt four out of five children that are placed through intercountry adoption, it is certainly in our national interest to secure ratification.  And while 40 nations have already ratified the document, many more are waiting to see what we will do.  U.S. ratification will signal our commitment to these standards, and will reassure "sending countries" that we intend to abide by them.  And I am hopeful that it will encourage people everywhere to consider the benefits of international adoption.

On the other hand, should we fail to ratify, we will deal a serious setback to the Convention, and will cause major sending countries to reconsider whether to continue to send their children here.

With so much at stake, the authors of this legislation have sought, from the beginning, to keep our "eyes on the prize" and to do everything in our power to prevent this effort from becoming a partisan or ideological exercise.  The bill is crafted to do no more than is necessary to implement the convention, and we have worked together to discourage extraneous or controversial amendments that could jeopardize its speedy enactment.  We agreed insofar as possible to leave to the states those functions which they have traditionally overseen, and to leave domestic adoption practices undisturbed.

I believe we have largely succeeded in these efforts.  I recognize that this legislation represents a compromise on many tough issues.  And every compromise involves some degree of sacrifice by all concerned.  I am therefore very grateful that so many organizations representing such a broad spectrum of opinion have been willing to put aside their broader agendas and give their support to the bill.

Again, I want to thank all those who have contributed to this effort.  I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 2909, and reserve the balance of my time.