Senate Ratifies Pact That Seeks to Protect Children In International Adoptions
An article from CQ Almanac 2000
Document Outline
Senate Committee Approves Treaty On Adoption
House Passes Bill To Implement Adoption Treaty
Senate Passes Bill; Quick Conference Expected
Senate Ratifies International Adoption Pact
The Senate ratified an international treaty on adoptions after Congress reached agreement on legislation to implement the pact in the United States, including giving the State Department primary authority. President Clinton signed the legislation Oct. 6.
The Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption (Treaty Doc 105–51) aims to ensure that international adoptions take place in the best interests of the child, that countries cooperate to prevent child abductions and trafficking and that adoptions adhere to basic standards. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jesse Helms, R-N.C., one of the key movers in ratifying the treaty, had held it up in 1999 to ensure that the State Department would be the lead U.S. agency in implementing the pact. The bill was further delayed by social conservatives in the House who worried that it might supersede laws restricting adoptions by gay adults. The Senate included language allowing foreign countries to review “home studies” that screen potential adoptive parents.
Box Score
Bill: HR 2909 — PL 106-279
Legislative action: House passed HR 2909 (H Rept 106–691, Part 1), by voice vote, July 18.
Senate passed HR 2909, amended, by voice vote, July 27.
House further amended HR 2909, by voice vote, Sept. 18.
Senate cleared HR 2909 and ratified the Hague convention on adoptions, both by voice vote on Sept. 20.
President signed HR 2909 on Oct. 6.
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Senate Committee Approves Treaty On Adoption
April 15 — The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has approved a treaty and implementing legislation designed to regulate the international adoption of children, after reaching agreement with a House panel that the State Department should control the process. The Foreign Relations Committee on April 13 approved, by voice vote, the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption (Treaty Doc 105–51) and legislation (S 682) necessary for the treaty's operation in the United States.
The committee in March reached agreement with the House International Relations Committee over which federal agency should have primary jurisdiction over the program. The disagreement had slowed action on the bill.
Senate committee Chairman Jesse Helms, R-N.C, who sponsored the bill along with Mary L. Landrieu, D-La., said the State Department should be the lead agency because it is better placed to monitor adoption agencies overseas. The House committee said the Department of Health and Human Services, experienced in adoptions, should have the main responsibility.
The House panel gave in to Helms and Landrieu and approved its version of the legislation (HR 2909), 28–0, on March 22. The measure still must be considered by the Judiciary and Education and the Workforce committees in the House.
Some members of the Senate committee had reservations about the treaty and legislation. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., who has adopted two foreign children, said he was concerned the treaty would add “unnecessary cost and bureaucracy to the process.”
Brownback noted that U.S. adoptions of foreign children have doubled in the last five years. “I don't think the system's broken,” he said.
Paul S. Sarbanes, D-Md., however, said the pact was needed because a number of countries have said they will not allow children to be adopted by people in countries that have not ratified the treaty.
State Department officials agreed, noting that some countries are worried about the U.S. practice of state-licensed adoption agencies. They prefer to deal with a single national system of accreditation.
Bill sponsors also say the treaty would combat the kidnapping of children for adoption, falsification of medical records to make children seem healthier, and charging of excessive fees for adoption services.
The panel approved the treaty and implementing measure, along with a slate of other legislation and nominations, on a single voice vote.
Other Nations
Other measures approved by the panel include:
A House-passed bill (HR 3707) that would authorize $75 million to construct new offices for the American Institute in Taipei, the unofficial U.S. embassy in Taiwan.
A non-binding resolution (S. Res. 289) expressing support for efforts by the United States to condemn Cuba's human rights practices at the U.N. Human Rights Convention in Geneva.
A non-binding resolution (S. Res. 287) by Helms, Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and Frank R. Lautenberg, D-N.J., calling for the United States to maintain a hard line with Libya.
The Clinton Administration has been exploring some means of improving its bitter relations with Libya since the government of Muammar el-Qaddafi agreed last year to surrender two suspects in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.
But the resolution states that some of the steps being explored — such as easing a ban on travel by U.S. citizens to Libya — should not be considered until after the Libyan government takes responsibility for the bombing and other acts of international terrorism.
The conservative Helms noted the unusual alliance he had formed on the issue with the liberal Kennedy.
“When Helms and Kennedy get together on an issue, that covers the world,” Helms said. Kennedy helped tighten U.S. sanctions (PL 104-172) on Libya four years ago. (1996 Almanac, p. 9-5)
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House Passes Bill To Implement Adoption Treaty
July 22 — Congress has come one step closer to ratifying a treaty designed to regulate the international adoption of children — but only after the House included language in implementing legislation that social conservatives believe will reduce the number of adoptions they find inappropriate, such as those by gays.
On July 18, the House passed, by voice vote, legislation (HR 2909) designed to guide federal agencies in implementing the treaty. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee in April approved both the treaty — called the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption (Treaty Doc 105–51) — and its version of implementing legislation (S 682).
According to aides, the Senate is expected to consider the treaty and implementing legislation the week of July 24, where it is likely to face little opposition.
The House bill had been held up since March by demands from social conservatives led by Republican Christopher H. Smith of New Jersey, chairman of the House International Relations Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights. Smith feared that the treaty and implementing legislation were not strict enough in determining which parents could adopt and which agencies could be involved in the process.
In particular, they fear that the implementing legislation could undermine state and foreign laws governing the potential pool of adoptive parents. Some countries such as China, Romania and Bulgaria, and many U.S. states, prohibit or restrict the rights of gay adults to adopt.
“I have been concerned that the new regulatory scheme not facilitate ‘end runs’ around legitimate laws and policies of states and foreign countries designed to protect the best interests of children,” Smith said on the House floor.
After prodding by Republican leaders, Smith eventually agreed to a compromise that would beef up provisions governing “home studies” that screen potential adoptive parents, to effectively continue such restrictions. The amended bill would call for foreign countries to be given the results of the home studies before they signed off on adoptions. That would allow them to prevent “placing children in inappropriate settings.” Adoption services that did not carry out sufficiently rigorous studies could be punished by being banned or suspended from the program.
During the brief House debate, some lawmakers who have adopted children from overseas testified to the importance of approving the implementing legislation.
Bill Delahunt, D-Mass., whose adopted daughter, Kara, was born in Vietnam, said the treaty would help remedy some problems such as exorbitant fees, kidnapping, baby smuggling, a lack of information about the child's medical and psychological conditions, and even the forcing of women to give up their children for adoption.
Delahunt said those problems have caused a number of countries, including Russia, Romania and Guatemala, to suspend overseas adoptions until safeguards can be put in place.
Americans adopt four out of five children placed through international adoption, Delahunt said.
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Senate Passes Bill; Quick Conference Expected
July 29 — The Senate is waiting until September and final action on implementing legislation before ratifying a treaty designed to regulate international adoptions.
The Senate on July 27 amended and passed, by voice vote, the bill (HR 2909) to set up U.S. procedures for joining the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption (Treaty Doc 105–51).
The treaty, which was not brought up on the floor, aims to make sure that international adoptions take place in the best interests of the child, that countries cooperate to prevent child abductions and trafficking, and that adoptions adhere to basic standards.
The measure calls for the secretary of State to oversee the accreditation process for adoption agencies abroad.
The bill would require that adoption papers include the child's medical records in English, said Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jesse Helms, R-N.C.
Some lawmakers have said they worry the bill does not protect the confidentiality of personal information about parents and the children they adopt. The bill would leave it to the states to address those issues.
The measure now heads to conference, which is expected to be swift once Congress returns because Helms and House International Relations Committee Chairman Benjamin A. Gilman, R-N.Y., have already begun to negotiate.
During the bill's House consideration, Democratic Rep. Bill Delahunt, of Massachusetts said the bill would put an end to practices such as kidnapping children for adoptions, falsifying medical records to make children seem more attractive to adoptive parents, and charging exorbitant fees for adoption services.
The House passed the legislation July 18 by voice vote. It had languished until language was added that social conservatives believe will reduce the number of adoptions they find inappropriate, such as those by gays.
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Senate Ratifies International Adoption Pact
September 23 — The Senate on Sept. 20 ratified a treaty designed to regulate international adoptions and cleared legislation to bring U.S. laws into compliance.
The Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption (Treaty Doc 105–51) was ratified by unanimous consent. The House passed the accompanying bill (HR 2909) by voice vote Sept. 18, after an exchange of amendments with the Senate, which then cleared the measure by voice vote.
The treaty aims to ensure that international adoptions take place in the best interests of the child, that countries cooperate to prevent child abductions and trafficking, and that adoptions adhere to basic standards.
Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jesse Helms, R-N.C., one of the key movers in ratifying the treaty, said on the Senate floor Sept. 21 that he hoped the accord would “encourage more intercountry adoptions, while protecting all those involved in the process.”
Families in Western Europe, North America, Israel and Australia have adopted 20,000 children from developing countries and Eastern Europe since the early 1980s. In some cases, however, the adoptions have produced a backlash, including accusations of exorbitant fees, kidnapping, baby smuggling, and a lack of information about the children's medical and psychological conditions. Supporters of the bill say this has led a number of countries, including Russia, Romania and Guatemala, to suspend overseas adoptions until safeguards can be put in place.
The legislation, Helms said, “is intended to build some accountability into agencies that provide intercountry adoption services in the United States, while strengthening the hand of the secretary of State in ensuring that U.S. adoption agencies engage in an ethical manner to find homes for children.”
Last year, Helms held up the legislation in a successful effort to ensure that the State Department was the lead agency in implementing the treaty.
The bill was further delayed by social conservatives in the House, led by Christopher H. Smith, R-N.J., chairman of the International Relations Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights.
Smith feared that the treaty and implementing legislation were not strict enough in setting rules on who could adopt and which agencies could be involved in the process. In particular, he worried that the bill could undermine state and foreign laws governing the potential pool of adoptive parents. Some countries, such as China, Romania and Bulgaria, and many U.S. states, prohibit or restrict adoptions by gay adults.
The Senate took these concerns into account when it passed the measure July 27 by allowing foreign countries to review the result of the “home studies” that screen potential adoptive parents.
The House made further changes before sending the bill back for final passage by the Senate, including a provision that would allow U.S. adoption officials to take into account whether a child's biological parents are seeking to immigrate to the United States at the same time.
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