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You know, this-and I say for all assembled: This is one of those issues and there are several human rights issues like this-where Mr. Cardin and I, Democrat/Republican, there is no space between us, so we are speaking out for children. And he put it so well: We have zero tolerance when it comes to trafficking.

But adoption, intercountry adoptions, properly done, it is a scandal to suggest that that is trafficking. That is: building loving homes.

I'd like to yield to Mr. Bradley, Jeb Bradley, who has been speaking out very forcefully for some of his own constituents who have been marked by this anti-adoption law.

Mr. Bradley?

STATEMENT OF HON. JEB BRADLEY,
MEMBER OF CONGRESS (NH-1)

Mr. BRADLEY. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

It's a pleasure to be able to call you "Mr. Chairman" again, and I thank both you and Congressman Cardin for your leadership on this issue and, obviously, for many, many years of hard work.

I have come to this issue much more recently, and I'd like to talk about a specific issue of pipeline cases. A family in my congressional district, we actually approached them after reading their story in the newspaper, about the bureaucracy that was involved. As we became more and more involved with it, I had the opportunity on many occasions to speak with Ambassador Ducaru and met with President Basescu and Prime Minister Nastase and talked about how we could resolve the 184 pending pipeline cases. And those are cases where American families- -as many of you in this room know because you're adoptive parents already of Romanian children, as the one family that we approached already had a Romanian child, a son-have had the paperwork through the approval process and but for the last stamp of being able to leave the country, once the law changed, those adoptions-the 184 cases, and it's about 1,000 overall in other different countries-have been put on hold.

And these families, as everybody in this room knows, have invested so much love, time, commitment, traveling to Romania in many instances, meeting their prospective children, and have invested as a family in these orphans that are in-as you so eloquently describe-group homes.

And when I had the opportunity to meet this one constituentand, through her, several other families-I know firsthand that these are loving parents, ready to establish loving homes in our country, and there is a track record of having done so and done so wonderfully.

And none of us can tolerate trafficking, and once again I congratulate you for your leadership, Chairman Smith, in highlighting and doing something about this terrible issue. But as you so correctly note, these intercountry adoptions, with the track record that's been established, are not trafficking. It's a great, wonderful story for the families and the children who are so disaffected.

After having spoken with President Basescu in March, I received a commitment that the pending cases, the pipeline cases, would be dealt with expeditiously, as soon as the European Union vote had

happened. And so I am here again today to urge my friend, Ambassador Ducaru, to help us help you break that logjam.

Ambassador Ducaru took me aside for a few moments and spoke about what is currently happening in his country, and I hope that he'll talk about that when he is on the panel. If what is indicated to me happens, I think it would be a good step in trying to resolve these pipeline cases.

Beyond that, I wouldn't want to comment on the law, on the adoption law. My focus has been on the pipeline cases, those cases that have been previously approved and should be completed as expeditiously as possible. I look forward to Ambassador Ducaru's testimony and working with you, Mr. Chairman, with you, Mr. Ambassador, to resolve this very difficult issue, which has risen to a level that the House, at least, has taken action to make a very firm statement that the pipeline cases need to be resolved, and I look forward to helping to resolve them.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. SMITH. Mr. Bradley, thank you very much.

I'd like to now recognize Anne Northup, distinguished member of the Appropriations Committee, former member of this Commission, gentlelady from Kentucky.

STATEMENT OF HON. ANNE M. NORTHUP, ANNE M. NORTHUP, MEMBER OF CONGRESS (KY–3)

Mrs. NORTHUP. Thank you very much.

I'm delighted to be here today to add my voice and concern to the current situation.

Mr. Chairman, as a Member of Congress and a former member of the Helsinki Commission, I am committed to embracing the humanitarian challenges that we face. As an adoptive parent myself, I know the joy that an adoptive child brings. As we consider the benefits of adoption to both adoptive families and adopted children, we must eliminate barriers and the stigma of adoption.

Hopefully this hearing will raise the level of awareness of the many children in the United States and Romania who lack loving homes and families. We must honestly confront the reasons why there are still families here in the U.S. waiting to finish adopting their children from Romania since 2001 and what we need to do to reestablish the relationship we had with Romania regarding intercountry adoption.

Let me first say to the Romanian Ambassador here today: It is a privilege and an honor to be able to adopt a child from Romania. I have a constituent here from Louisville, KY, who is named Karen Barrentine. Karen was in the process of adopting a child in 2001 when the moratorium began. She still visits her child regularly in Romania, making several trips a year, as the child remains in an orphanage today.

Her daughter, Beta, was 3 years old when she began the adoption process. That was in the year 2000. She will be turning eight this November. That is more than 4 years of the most important time in her life that she has spent in an institution instead of with the mother that loves her. That is four Christmases, four birthdays, four summer vacations-time that can never be replaced.

And let me tell you, there is no time that goes by quickly when you are waiting to take home an adoptive child. Every day you have to wait for the process to be completed is painful. I remember those days myself. I cannot imagine still waiting after all this time or what these 4 years must have been for these families and for these children.

Karen is now considering purchasing a home in Romania just to be closer to her daughter and has even started a foundation in Romania to provide education and other services to additional Romanian orphanages.

What is truly incredible is that Karen and many of the other pending adoptive parents refuse to give up on their efforts and the efforts of our two governments to work out the approximately 200 pipeline cases put on hold since 2001. They are counting on They don't want excuses, they don't want conversation; they want us to work out these problems.

I have written letters, with other Members of Congress, to President Basescu and written letters more recently to Secretary Condoleezza Rice, to some of the other E.U. Members of Parliament. We have asked questions, we have had meetings, and we have written these letters to government officials, but basically we are right where we were 5 years ago. It cannot go on.

All of us on this panel want what is in the best interests of children. As a party to the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption, placing a child with a permanent family is the priority. Domestic adoption is the first option, and then international adoption. But I do not understand the backward steps that Romania has taken recently to prevent this and all other options.

I have heard and seen from witnesses' testimony there has been pressure put on the Romanian Government by one woman, Baroness Emma Nicholson, a member of the European Parliament and former Romania rapporteur, who simply claims that intercountry adoption is totally akin to child trafficking.

That is breathtaking, that that sort of statement is allowed to stand. This is truly unfortunate, and these claims do not help either side in trying to make the process more safe and accessible for the child.

That's what this is about-it's for the child. I understand that as Romania is being considered for membership in the E.U., the government is trying to appease all the Members of the European Parliament, in particular their rapporteur. But in doing this, I would ask both the Romanian Government and the European Parliament to consider the implications of their actions in allowing the actions of this person on the children, the effect it is having on the children of Romania, especially the 200 who already technically have homes, that are waiting to be placed.

Mr. Chairman, thank you for the time. I want to also add that I am so pleased the Helsinki Commission is taking up this issue, this large portfolio of humanitarian security issues. I cannot imagine a greater way to make a difference in the lives of citizens here and in Europe than to facilitate the permanent placement of children in loving, safe homes.

Thank you.

Mr. SMITH. Thank you very much, Congresswoman Northup.

I now would like to recognize Commissioner Pitts, who has been a stalwart on human rights and, like myself and Mr. Cardin, has been to Romania on many occasions, has been to many of the homes where abandoned children have been helped, particularly by faith-based organizations, most recently in Timisoara, but I know that Mr. Pitts has been there many times.

I yield such time as he may wish.

STATEMENT OF HON. JOSEPH R. PITTS, COMMISSIONER, COMMISSION ON SECURITY AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE Mr. PITTS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding this important hearing.

I will submit my full statement for the record, but let me just make a few comments.

As you well know from your leadership on adoption issues, there are many wonderful families in the United States who are waiting to give Romanian children a loving home. It is deeply disturbing that the apparent biases of one or two individuals in the European Union are allowed to negatively affect the lives and futures of tens of thousands of children in Romania.

These individual biases that are holding hostage the lives of many children must be strongly addressed by the European Union and policies must be changed so that thousands and thousands of children in Romania have the opportunity for a better life.

I believe that not only are the limits of the new intercountry adoption law adverse to the spirit and tenets of both international child welfare treaties to which Romania is a signatory, it also does not provide a means by which the 200 cases previously processed under the Emergency Ordinance may be completed.

Unfortunately, these children have now waited an interminable period to be placed with a loving family. Therefore, it is my hope and the hope of all Members of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption that the Romanian Government will develop a transparent system for reviewing these cases and processing adoptions that were qualified under the Special Ordinance prior to its suspension.

In addition, I hope that we, as Members of Congress, who care deeply about children and about the country of Romania, can work together with the leadership of the country to reverse this law, that is so damaging to the children's health and welfare.

I look forward to the testimony.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for scheduling this hearing. I yield back.

Mr. SMITH. Thank you.

Before I introduce our first distinguished panelist, Ambassador Harty, let me just state for the record that the Commission extended invitations to three representatives from the European Union to testify today about the E.U.'s position on intercountry adoption. All three declined to come.

Yesterday the Commission received a letter from the Delegation of the European Commission to the United States, which I want to read in pertinent part:

"I regret that we will not be able to provide an expert. However, the main elements of our position are well-estab

lished. The European Commission welcomes the new Ro-
manian legislation as paving the way for alternative care
of children deprived of their families. This approach, focus-
ing on the interests of the child, is in line with the EU-
acquis and with Romania's obligation under the U.N. Con-
vention on the Rights of the Child. It represents an effi-
cient legislation to avoid trafficking children and other
forms of abuse."

The entire letter will be submitted for the record, and this is the all-too-clear backdrop for our discussions.

Now I will go to Ambassador Harty.

Parenthetically, I was selected by President Bush, 41, to give the speech at the United Nations on behalf of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, which we have not ratified. It had some problems with it, but it by and large was, I think, a very good docu

ment.

I've read, from cover to cover, that convention-it was more than a decade in the making-and nowhere in that document did I see an anti-adoption bias in spirit or in letter.

So I find it a total misread, and I would hope that at a future hearing members of the European Commission-and that would include Lady Nicholson-would avail themselves of an opportunity to say how they read that into this document.

And added to that, as I said earlier, the Hague Convention_on Intercountry Adoptions, also multiple years in the making, is a document, is a covenant, to which the European countries, many of which, have acceded to and agreed to, as has the United States in the year 2000. So it is baffling in the extreme and very disappointing.

Let me now introduce our witness from the Bush administration, Assistant Secretary Maura Harty, who has served as the assistant secretary of Consular Affairs since November 2002. Immediately prior to assuming this position she served as the executive secretary of the Department of State.

Ambassador Harty entered the Foreign Service in 1981. Among her many assignments, Ms. Harty has served as the U.S. Ambassador to Paraguay and as the Managing Director of the Directorate of Overseas Citizen Services, where she created the Office of Children's Issues.

The establishment of that office focused attention and resources for the first time on the tragic problem of international parental child abduction. She is a true expert and a great leader in this field.

Ambassador Harty, thank you for joining us today, and please proceed as you wish.

STATEMENT OF HON. MAURA HARTY, ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR CONSULAR AFFAIRS, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE Amb. HARTY. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate very much the opportunity today to join in this conversation and to describe and discuss with you the efforts of the Department of State on behalf of American families and Romanian children in need, to urge the Government of Romania to live up to its international treaty commitments and to allow intercountry adoptions.

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