At today's House Ways and Means Committee hearing, Rep. David Schweikert (R-AZ), who is an adoptive father, spoke about the surprising story about the cost of adoption.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Two years ago this week, all of a sudden I'm getting these text messages from my office
00:11saying there's a social worker who needs me to call her.
00:15Okay, I immediately assume I have a family member that needs bail money.
00:20I call the social worker and the first words out of the mouth was, are you going to come
00:26pick it up?
00:28Pick up what?
00:30Apparently the birth mother of the little girl we had adopted six years earlier had
00:37walked into the hospital, no prenatal care, substance abuse, and had a little boy.
00:47The little boy was very small and going through withdrawals.
00:55So this is him exactly two years ago, and one of the greatest things that's ever happened
01:04in our lives.
01:05But before we were able to walk out of that hospital with him, it turns out an adoption
01:12agency worker had gotten the birth mother to sign a piece of paper.
01:16Now remember, the birth mother just said, hey, the Schweikerts had adopted my little
01:20girl.
01:21You know, this is the brother, wouldn't that be nice if they could be together?
01:26We were told we had to sign a piece of paper for $40,000 before we were allowed to walk
01:32out the door with the baby because the baby belonged to the adoption services.
01:38How does a middle class family ever adopt with these types of costs?
01:45Ms. Hilton actually said something that was brilliant.
01:48It's about the money.
01:53How many others here have gone through the certification to be a foster parent?
02:03My wife and I spent years and years and years trying to adopt, and it is stunning.
02:08It's maybe a combination of fertility rates have collapsed, but we spent years and a couple
02:15heartbreaking, I mean, just almost devastating failed adoptions.
02:22As you start to look at 4B, I know there's flexibility in it, but I would encourage the
02:28policymakers here, Mr. Gee, you're going to have some of the expertise in this.
02:33Something that's actually much more unified.
02:39And then here's my point of heresy.
02:42Thirty years ago, there was a national movement to fixate on family reunification.
02:51Having gone through the foster classes, having actually looked at the numbers, maybe our
02:58priority needs also to be the child and the child's welfare and the child's future.
03:07When you have people like my wife and I, we've done okay in life.
03:11I have really bad choices in career paths, but and yet, but my point is, if you're really
03:23trying to find a unified theory of everything from the adoption side to the foster care
03:28side to those who have parents who incarceration, stop doing it in silos.
03:36And the priority, number one priority of our society needs to be those kids.
03:40We don't have a lot of them.
03:43We have schools closing all over the country because there's not enough children.
03:48I love the Dave Thomas organization.
03:54They do incredibly moral work.
03:57I'm adopted.
03:58All my siblings are adopted.
03:59My little boy's third generation adopted, so is my little girl.
04:03Am I off my rocker thinking two things, unified approach so it's more than just 4B, but it's
04:10also maybe we need to step up the prioritization of protecting the child and its future from
04:17even some of the others, and I know that's heresy in the common folklore.
04:23So I say this representing the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption.
04:27When we consider what is best for children, for the vast majority of children, reunification
04:33is what is best.
04:34We also need to invest in high quality adoption.
04:38The Wendy's Wonderful Kids program, which is the signature initiative of the Dave Thomas
04:43Foundation has led to more than 14,000 children achieving permanency that would not have done
04:51so without.
04:52700 of those kids, this was their last chance of finding a home, were reunified.
04:59They were never actually given a chance at reunification sufficient so that when they
05:05were ready to be adopted, there was still the opportunity to reunify them.
05:09So I think we don't want to play adoption against reunification, and you're right.
05:14We do need a unifying framework.
05:16What is in the best interest of children?
05:19We're up against time.
05:20How common is our family's experience of you're not allowed to take the child home unless
05:26you have the cash?
05:29So what you're talking about is largely private adoption rather than public adoption.
05:33My understanding is they had people stalking the maternity wards in the different hospitals,
05:42getting people to sign that piece of paper.
05:45So they technically had the...
05:49I will follow Tori's lead and say I am not an expert on international adoption or private
05:55adoption.
05:56This was in Phoenix, in Phoenix, Arizona.
05:59Private adoption and public adoption of children that are in the foster care system are managed
06:04under very different policy structures and the like.
06:07So your experience, I don't have anything to add to.
06:11Mr. Chairman, thank you for your tolerance on the time.
06:13I yield back.
06:14Thank you, Mr. Schweikart.
06:15Mr. Blumenauer.