U.S. Senators Introduce Revised Intercountry Adoption Act

Senators Nickles (R-OK) and Landrieu (D-LA) introduced a revised version of the Intercountry Adoption Reform Act of 2004 (ICARE) on Dec. 7. The measure would establish an Office of Intercountry Adoptions (OIA) in the State Department, and confer automatic citizenship to children upon entry of the final adoption decree, and not upon entry into the U.S. The revised bill (S3031) adds provisions that would allow the OIA to enforce civil and criminal penalties for violations of the law in order to protect children, birth families and adoptive families from fraud and abuse. The new bill also clarifies the transition process, stipulating adoption cases filed prior to the opening of the OIA would be processed under current regulations. The original bill (S1934) was introduced in November 2003 and a companion bill (HR3896) is in the House. The revised bill has been referred to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary. To read the full text and status of the bill, go to http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query and search for S3031 in the bill number field.

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