ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, May 6, 1996 TAG: 9605060097
SECTION: NATL/INTL PAGE: A-2 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: The Washington Post|
In a letter he will send House Republican leaders today, President Clinton will endorse Republican legislation that would allow most adoptive families to claim a $5,000 tax credit and penalize states whose adoption agencies delay placement of a child to find a family of the same race, White House sources said Sunday.
The president will embrace provisions that have traditionally been in the Republican domain. The adoption tax credit was part of the House GOP's ``Contract With America,'' and Republicans have been most vocal in opposing racial matching in adoption placements.
``Promoting adoption is one of the most important things we can do to strengthen American families and give more children what every child in America deserves - loving parents and a healthy home,'' the president says in his letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post.
It will be the second time in three days that the president has gotten involved in measures affecting families, a topic likely to play a major role in this year's presidential election. And both times, the president staked out positions likely to alienate some liberals.
On Saturday, he announced he would require states to end welfare payments to teen-age parents who refuse to stay in school or to live with a parent or guardian.
In endorsing the adoption bill, Clinton said he ``strongly supported'' the tax credit, which would be $5,000 for families earning up to $75,000 a year. The size of the credit would gradually decline for families earning between $75,000 and $115,000; families earning more than $115,000 would not be eligible for a credit.
Also, he goes further than he has in the past to interject himself directly into the emotional and divisive issue of interracial adoption.
The bill, slated to go to the House floor this week, would prohibit states or adoption agencies from discriminating on the basis of race against families who want to adopt.
Agencies could consider race in placing a child if there are two or more qualified families but may not delay placement while waiting for a parent of the same race.
That language, Clinton says in his letter, is consistent with ``my longstanding goal to end the historical bias against interracial adoptions, which too often has meant interminable waits for children to be matched with parents of the same race.''
Republicans said they welcome the endorsement but pointed out that the president had vetoed a welfare bill last year that contained similar language on interracial adoptions.
``We're happy to have it,'' Rep. Susan Molinari, R-N.Y., said of the endorsement. ``I know he had tentative problems with transracial adoptions in the past. ... I hope this signals to Democrats to join with us.''
More than 400,000 children are in the foster-care system, about half of whom are minorities. Minority children wait longer to be adopted than do white children, according to studies.
Among children in foster care, only about 21,000 are legally available for adoption, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. And of those, two out of three have ``special needs,'' including emotional or physical disabilities or the need to be placed as part of a sibling group.
Many Republicans and some Democrats, including former Sen. Howard Metzenbaum, D-Ohio, have contended that the policy of race-matching has kept thousands of African-American children languishing in foster care for years. But social workers say that the high number in foster care stems from the difficulty in placing children with special needs.
Legislation was adopted in 1994 with the intention of banning race-matching, but Metzenbaum and others were dissatisfied with Clinton administration regulations interpreting the law, because they allowed agencies to consider race.
Administration officials say the law has been aggressively enforced, reducing the number of states that give an automatic preference to black families in the adoption of black children.
Still, Republicans have pushed for a new law that would ban racial placement outright, essentially establishing a color-blind system that would match children and families without regard to race.
While that was the original language in the bill when it went before the Ways and Means Committee, it was amended to allow race to be considered when there is more than one qualified family seeking to adopt a child. The bill, which was approved by the committee on a voice vote, would also go further than current law to penalize states that do not comply.
Rep. Charles B. Rangel, D-N.Y., who had argued vociferously against a ``first-come, first-served'' approach, said the new language does not change the current law. ``The only reason the president's doing all of this is ... because he wants to make it clear he's not opposed to interracial adoption.
LENGTH: Medium: 91 linesby CNB