Hearings on Senator McCain's bill will be held on June 26, at which time
the bill will be given a formal name and number so we can all read it on
the Thomas service. However, Phil Baker-Shemk, staff member of the Senate
Committee on Indian Affairs, says the McCain bill will address the
concerns of maintaining sovereignty rights. In general terms, McCain's
bill is expected to 1) not alter the definition of tribal members as the
proposed amendment did, 2) tighten time requirements for filing a claim,
3) will contain language to "foster" (promote) better guarantees that
tribes will be notified of potential adoptions of Indian Children, and 4)
thereby increase adoptive parents' confidence that a problem will not
arise later because of inaccurrate representations by lawyers or agencies.
Mr. Baker-Shemk also indicated that the results of the inter-tribal
council on the issue of adoption "have been taken into consideration."
(This council was held earlier this month, I believe - does anyone have
any info on that?).
McCain's bill will probably go thru the "markup" process in July. I'll
post info on the formal title and number of the new bill as soon as I know
it. I will also find out how all the members of the committee voted on
the issue of removing the amendment to the ICWA from the "Adoption
Promotion" bill, so we can thank those who voted to remove it and chastise
those who didn't.
Altho we haven't actually won yet (nothing is sure until the "markup"
session for the Adoption Promotion bill on June 19) things are looking up
for the good guys, for once.
Karen
Life is a Rorschach test. It's what you make of it that counts.