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Military families seeking to adopt children will see leave benefits and health care benefits for those children expanded under provisions sponsored by Nebraska’s Senator Ben Nelson and included in key national defense legislation completed by the United States Senate today.
“We should do all we can to promote adoption and that includes making it easier for military families to adopt children,” said Senator Nelson. “After everything they sacrifice to improve our lives at home, increasing the benefits of military families and enriching their families with adopted children is the least we can do to improve theirs.”
Given the uncertain deployment of military families, adoption can be a difficult process. Senator Nelson’s amendments are designed to simplify and improve adoption for these families.
Specifically, the first of two provisions included in the Fiscal Year 2006 National Defense Authorization Conference Report (H.R. 1815) authorizes up to 21 days of additional leave for service members to use when a child is lawfully placed in their home for purposes of adopting the child.
The second provision clarifies adoption healthcare statutes by filling in the cracks to ensure adopted children of military families have access to quality healthcare. The current law stipulates that only children placed in a military member’s home by a placement agency are eligible for military health and dental care.
According to the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys, about 75 percent of newborn adoptions are not placed through adoption agencies, but through other lawful means such as private attorneys and other state approved individuals.
Senator Nelson’s amendment mends this oversight and grants independently placed children in military families the same benefits as children placed by agencies.
“As an adoptive parent myself, I know the rewards of adoption,” said Nelson. “Our military families are such a deserving group and I’ll keep working to reward them every way I can.”
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