[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 210 (Monday, November 1, 1999)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 59103-59104]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-28716]
[[Page 59101]]
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Part XI
The President
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Proclamation 7245--National Adoption Month, 1999
Notice of October 29, 1999--Continuation of Sudanese Emergency
Presidential Documents
Federal Register / Vol. 64, No. 210 / Monday, November 1, 1999 /
Presidential Documents
___________________________________________________________________
Title 3--
The President
[[Page 59103]]
Proclamation 7245 of October 28, 1999
National Adoption Month, 1999
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
This month, as families across America look forward to
the holiday season that is fast approaching, we
remember with special concern the thousands of children
in our Nation who are growing up without the
unconditional love and security of a permanent home.
Our Nation's foster care system plays an invaluable
role in providing temporary safe and caring homes to
children who need them, but permanent homes and
families are vital to giving these children the
stability and sustained love they need to reach their
full potential.
My Administration has worked hard to promote adoption
by assisting adoptive families and breaking down
barriers to adoption. We have helped remove many
economic barriers to adoption by providing tax credits
to families adopting children, and the Family and
Medical Leave Act that I signed into law in 1993 gives
workers job-protected leave to care for their newly
adopted children. The Adoption and Safe Families Act I
signed in 1997 reformed our Nation's child welfare
system, made clear that the health and safety of
children must be the paramount concern of State child
welfare services, and expedited permanent placement for
children. It also ensured health coverage for children
with special needs and created new financial incentives
for States to increase adoption. We also took important
steps to help ensure that the adoption process remains
free from discrimination and delays on the basis of
race, culture, and ethnicity. We are now working to
break down geographic barriers to adoption by using the
Internet to link children in foster care to possible
adoptive families.
We have new evidence that our efforts are bearing
fruit: the first significant increase in adoptions
since the National Foster Care Program was created
almost 20 years ago. A new report from the Department
of Health and Human Services shows that from 1996 to
1998, the number of adoptions nationwide rose 29
percent--from 28,000 to 36,000--and should meet our
national goal of 56,000 adoptions by the year 2002. In
addition, the First Lady and I were pleased to announce
this past September the first-ever bonus awards to
States that have increased the number of adoptions from
the public foster care system. We also announced
additional grants to public and private organizations
that remove barriers to adoption.
To follow through on this record of achievement, I have
urged the Congress to safeguard the interests and well-
being of young people who reach the age of 18 without
being adopted or placed in a permanent home. Under the
current system, Federal financial assistance for young
people in foster care ends just as they are making the
critical transition to independence. We must ensure
that when these young people are old enough to leave
the foster care system, they have the health care, life
skills training, and educational opportunities they
need to succeed personally and professionally.
As we observe National Adoption Month this year, we can
take pride in our progress, but we know there is more
work to be done. Let us take this opportunity to
rededicate ourselves to meeting those challenges, and
let us honor the many adoptive parents whose generosity
and love have
[[Page 59104]]
made such an extraordinary difference in the lives of
thousands of our Nation's children.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the
United States of America, by virtue of the authority
vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United
States, do hereby proclaim November 1999 as National
Adoption Month. I urge all Americans to observe this
month with appropriate programs and activities to honor
adoptive families and to participate in efforts to find
permanent, loving homes for waiting children.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
twenty-eighth day of October, in the year of our Lord
nineteen hundred and ninety-nine, and of the
Independence of the United States of America the two
hundred and twenty-fourth.
(Presidential Sig.)
[FR Doc. 99-28716
Filed 10-29-99; 11:31 am]
Billing code 3195-01-P
