Today, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (MO-08) delivered the following remarks on the House floor during debate on the Recruiting Families Using Data Act.

As prepared for delivery.

“I rise today in support of the Recruiting Families Using Data Act introduced by my Ways and Means colleagues Representatives Randy Feenstra and Brendan Boyle. This bill would make a relatively straightforward but needed update to current law to promote state-level recruitment of foster care families.

“Thousands of loving parents open their homes every year to offer care and support for children in need. By doing so, they provide shelter for children who would otherwise be forced to stay in caseworker offices, hospitals, and hotels. However, many of these same parents, for any number of reasons, stop serving as foster families after only one year. 

“In short, there is a dire need for more foster families in our communities. 

“Much of the foster care system is coordinated at the state level. Which means we need to enlist the states in helping expand the number of foster families. Under current law, states are required, as a condition of receiving funding, to have a plan in place to recruit foster and adoptive families. But we know – based on an analysis by the Department of Health and Human Services – that many states continue to face challenges. 

“This bill would build on existing law by calling on states receiving federal funding to develop family partnership plans that lay out their specific process for finding potential foster families and recruiting and retaining them in the foster care system.

“The legislation also authorizes the evaluation of key data to ensure we identify what efforts have been successful in expanding the availability of foster families.

“I want to thank Representatives Feenstra and Boyle for introducing this legislation and their bipartisan leadership on this issue.

“I encourage all of my colleagues to support this commonsense legislation.”