ALERT – BREAKING NEWS: Last Wednesday, February 26, Chairman Camp of the Ways and Means Committee released his much anticipated tax reform proposal and it eliminates the adoption tax credit. This breaking news makes our advocacy efforts that much more critical. Now that an actual legislative proposal has suggested eliminating the credit altogether, we need to ensure that every single Member of Congress hears from us about its importance. Members will only be compelled to fight for its protection if they hear real stories from all of you.
Key Message: Outreach to your legislators is the only way to protect the adoption tax credit.
Members of Congress want to hear from you – their constituents – about what matters to you. Legislators only need to hear from 20 constituents about an issue before it becomes important to them. Remember, Members of Congress are people and oftentimes it is a personal story about why a law is needed that motivates them to act. They also understand that they are there to represent the people of their district. They want to know how a particular policy will affect those they are called to serve.
Highlighted FAQ: When will Congress vote on the Adoption Tax Credit Refundability Act (H.R. 2144/S.1056)?
• An individual vote on this bill is unlikely to happen. However, the adoption tax credit will remain part of the broader tax reform discussions and is now particularly vulnerable given the proposal to eliminate it. The more Congressional co-sponsors these bills have, the more likely the adoption tax credit will receive favorable attention in these discussions in Congress. Members of Congress are hearing daily from paid lobbyists about other tax related interests, and will have to make tough decisions about which tax policies are their ultimate priorities. Let’s not let the adoption tax credit become a victim because Members of Congress haven’t heard enough about its importance to their constituents! Don’t delay. Ask your Members of Congress to cosponsor H.R. 2144/S.1056 and share their responses here: info@adoptiontaxcredit.org.
For more advocacy tips visit:
http://adoptiontaxcredit.org/advocate
Call to Action: Initial Emails to Your Members of Congress – Figure out who your three Members of Congress (2 Senators and 1 Representative) are by using senate.gov and house.gov. Using their websites, figure out the best way to contact each of them (often it will be through an email or a form on their website). Email each of them and explain the importance of adoption and ask for their support in protecting the credit. Use our sample template letter (here) as a starting point, but be sure to personalize it. Speak from the heart and share your story about why the ATC is important to children, your family, or others in your life. Provide the link to www.adoptiontaxcredit.org
in your email so they can find additional information.
Copied from AFTH.org email alert to all of their clients… 3/5/2014
Brownswissmomma's Blog 
The adoption tax credit SHOULD be ended — the funds could be out to better use being reinvested in family preservation and foster care services. If people want to adopt they should SAVE and EARN and USE their own money to do so! It is practically free to adopt from foster care — if you want to buy a kid from overseas, you’re welcome to! Without assistance from taxpayers money!
I am of two minds about it. In our case we never qualify for the credit since we don’t make enough money. And, there is a lot of government waste. But, in some cases the birth mothers just do not want to parent due to the circumstances she finds herself in: job, relationships, school, career, etc. and would not parent even with supports. To be honest there are tons of supports right now: WIC, cash assistance, food stamps, housing assistance, LIHEAP. But informing the adoption community that this might soon be ended is important. It changes some budgets when planning adoption. Our first adoption was before any of the credits existed and the cost of adoption was much lower.
One could say the same for prospective adopters. There are lots of options; taking out a loan, refinancing your house, selling property, fundraisers, family, etc. That doesn’t make it much easier though.
The adoption industry pays too much lip service to “ethics” and not enough time actually putting action behind it. Constant busts of trafficking rings, anti adoptee laws (against opening birth records even from 80+ years ago, against ANY sort of restrictions even in the face of multiple adoptee deaths, against countries lowering international adoption rates such as they did for Russia recently, etc).
Lets put their money where their mouth is. Trying to have an impartial system where prospective adopters have all the power, all the laws, all the favor *and* huge sums of tax credits and subsidies waved around against an almost inevitably poorer expectant mother will NEVER lead to ethical decisions.
with as crooked as the adoption industry is, I am fine with getting rid of the tax credit
after the adoption credit, the fees for adoption increased about the same amount as the credit, meaning it did not help the adopting family at all really, only the adoption agency. It will be interesting to see if the credit is eliminated whether the fees will decrease for adoptions. I doubt it, but I wonder…
Child collectors don’t need more cash for kids!
Some people adopt more than one child because they know they can help that child become the best they can be. They have skills that inexperienced parents may not have and are willing to take a chance on children otherwise would be left in the system. Often people say things like this and a situation arises for adoption: micro encephaly, probable fetal alcohol, and other anomalies and who steps forward? Mostly what you call “child collectors” : families that are maybe larger than average, unafraid to do the work it takes to help this little one become the best they can be… and would gladly step aside if someone else steps forward…luckily this seems to be changing, more parents who are untested are willing to take a chance and that is only a good thing! And like I said, I am torn about this credit and discussion is a great thing!
20 percent of adoptees are unadopted to a jail or group home, adoptees are seventeen times more likely to suffer abuse or death. Giving extra monies when the real mom is hidden from the actual statistics is a crime.
The statistics on jail and children aging out of foster care are these: “What happens to foster youth who emancipate (age-out) from the system?
• 65% emancipate without a place to live
• Less than 3% go to college
• 51% are unemployed
• Emancipated females are 4 times more likely to receive public assistance than the general population
• In any given year, foster children compromise less than 0.3% of the state’s population, and yet 40% of persons living in homeless shelters are former foster children. A similarly disproportionate percentage of the nation’s prison population is comprised of former foster youth.
Source: California Progress Report. (January 17, 2007). “Expanding Transitional Services for Emancipated Foster Youth: An Investment in California’s Tomorrow.” The Children’s Advocacy Institute.”
And for adoptive families abusing, I am sorry if you know such a case, but statistics show this is a very rare event. If I can find a link, I will post it here.
However if you look on the pound puppies legacy web page or if you look at the charts on the government web page about the rates of child abuse of if you ask counselors the percentages. Those are the statistics I am going by.
This is a current article from the state of FL: Child abuse is at its worst when death of the child occurs.
http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/stateroundup/477-child-deaths-how-florida-preserved-families-but-lost-kids/2170381
97.7 percent of moms ask to keep and are told no, a huge factor given is the money, so quit paying people to buy these kids
This tax credit is none other than a way to destroy families that God has created. It undermines parents rights and authority to love and nurture their children and creates fraud, waste and abuse to provide children to the highest bidder.
Restore families; not destroy families!
#KodyBaden