Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, CBC Members Discuss Importance Of Foster Care On House Floor

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Last week, Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL) and other members of the CBC spoke about foster care.   Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript   Stay Connected Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com

Transcript

00:00 policy of January 9th, 2023, the gentlewoman from Florida, Ms.

00:05 Sherfilis McCormick is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the

00:09 minority leader. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all members have

00:15 five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include any

00:19 extraneous material on the subject of the special order hour. Without objection.

00:23 It is with great honor that I rise today to co-anchor the CBC special order hour

00:29 along with my distinguished colleague representative Jonathan Jackson and also

00:33 Gwen Moore, representative Gwen Moore. For the next 60 minutes, members of the CBC

00:38 have the opportunity to discuss the importance of the foster care and

00:42 outcomes among black families and children involved with what with child

00:46 welfare. An issue of great importance to the Congressional Black Caucus, Congress,

00:51 the constituents we represent, and all of Americans. At this moment I would like to

00:55 yield to our representative Gwen Moore.

01:00 Thank you so much gentlelady from Florida for heading up this special

01:09 order hour. At this time we have many members in the Congressional Black

01:13 Caucus who are concerned about this issue and I am so happy this evening

01:18 that we've also been joined by not only Jonathan Jackson but by the member of

01:26 the Ways and Means Committee, a mentor of mine, Dr. Danny Davis who has served as a

01:35 social worker and is very has kept abreast of those formal studies by

01:44 engaging and is a passionate passionate about foster youth. And I just want to

01:51 thank the Congressional Black Caucus for shining a light on this particular issue

01:58 because face it, these are our children. There are about 400,000 children

02:06 currently in foster care, not counting the ones who are in informal

02:13 arrangements in foster care, and they are our children. They are children of color,

02:20 particularly black children, disproportionately in the system. I for

02:25 example live in Wisconsin and while Wisconsin is only 9% of the population,

02:32 almost a quarter of the children in foster care are African-American

02:38 children. And I can tell you these are the most vulnerable kids in our country

02:45 but my god they are also the most resilient children. But even the most

02:53 resilient needs our help and our support and as Congress we must support them

03:03 because after all these youth are our future workforce. They are our workforce

03:10 and who will support us if we don't support them. Now we just left May and

03:19 May of course was National Foster Care Month and this year's theme of National

03:27 Foster Care Month was this year's theme was engaging youth, building supports and

03:35 strengthening opportunities. I think that that's a real important theme when I as I

03:44 want to announce happily that we're going to have another Foster Youth Day,

03:50 Shadow Day, and I would invite all of my colleagues to engage in the extraordinary

03:58 experience of letting one of these youth shadow you and you will be surprised

04:03 that while you think that you're teaching them stuff about your craft as

04:09 a ranking member, as a chairman, that you will learn so much for these youth and

04:17 that will be something that will carry through for the rest of your time

04:22 serving. It is a blessing. Now June is National Family Reunification Month and

04:30 I think that when we think we have had foster care system in this country for

04:36 many years but one of the things that we have learned is that foster care ought

04:43 to be the last resort and that if we separate children from their families

04:51 because of this out of necessity that we ought to do everything that we can to

04:57 try to to reunify them and to learn what strategies work toward that effort. We

05:09 want to make sure we want to do prevention to make sure that that these

05:16 children don't end up being separated from their families but if they do we

05:25 need to prioritize kinship care. You know one of the co-chairs of this committee

05:31 is a Republican called Don Bacon and he is adamant about kinship care and keeping

05:39 kinship groups together. That is one of his passions and we need to make sure we

05:45 support his legislation. We have another co-chair a Democrat from California

05:51 Representative Sydney Kamlager Dove and as she has come into this Congress

05:57 succeeding the now mayor of Los Angeles Karen Bass headfirst onto this issue and

06:05 is a passionate supporter of our programming. Mary Gay Scanlon an

06:11 attorney from Pennsylvania before she joined us in this body brought those

06:17 skills and brought her own experience doing a lot of pro bono work for

06:25 children and families caught in the foster care system. Passionate co-chair

06:30 of the bipartisan Congressional Caucus on Foster Youth Nancy Mace. We all know a

06:40 person who has served in our armed forces brings her leadership to this

06:47 task and Zach Nunn another Republican. It's bipartisan that we need to save our

06:54 children and so in just a few days we're going to have the Congressional Caucus

06:59 on Foster Youth. It's annual foster day and we want members to sign up to pair

07:07 for a foster youth. I just can't explain how impactful it is for these former

07:17 foster youth to shadow you for just a day and how beneficial it is to us as

07:23 policymakers and it's a great reminder that beyond these statistics are real

07:30 people. I have so much to say but there are others here that want to share I'd

07:36 be happy to get into a dialogue or colloquy with you so I would Madam Chair

07:42 of the special order I would yield back to you at this time. Thank you so much

07:48 Representative Gwen Moore and now I would like to yield to Representative

07:55 Danny Davis.

07:58 Well thank you very much Madam Chairman and let me commend you and the

08:14 Congressional Black Caucus for hosting this discussion this evening on what I

08:21 consider to be one of the most important issues in our country in our society and

08:29 that is taking a hard look at what is happening with our children and

08:35 especially those who are in need of care. Focusing on the adage that I've always

08:43 believed in and that is that an ounce of prevention is worth much more than a

08:51 pound of cure and so it just reminds me of some of the many things that we have

08:58 championed trying to make sure that not only do our children receive the care

09:05 and attention that they need once they're in care but also trying to

09:11 prevent them from having to have that experience and so I was thinking of 2023

09:19 that Illinois and the nation benefited from the reauthorization of the MACV

09:28 program which I was fortunate to lead. The MACV program funds evidence-based

09:36 education and services proven to improve mother and child health, family safety

09:46 and child development. I helped create this program in 2010 and it has brought

09:53 over 119 million dollars to Illinois and 5.2 billion dollars to the country to

10:03 help make families stronger and try and help them to be able to retain their

10:12 children. I'm also reminded that Illinois and the nation benefited from the

10:19 Family First Prevention Services Act that I helped enact that made historic

10:26 improvements to child welfare, fundamentally shifting policy from

10:32 separating families to strengthening them by addressing the key reasons that

10:40 families struggle. Illinois has received over 66 million dollars in prevention

10:48 funding to strengthen families from the loss since it was enacted almost six

10:55 years ago and I'm reminded that unification month, what does that really

11:02 mean? I think it means trying to keep families as connected as we possibly

11:10 can and so I want to thank the Illinois Department of Corrections for an

11:16 allowing our fatherhood initiative every year to take children to correctional

11:24 institutions to visit with their fathers. As a matter of fact we've done that now

11:30 for about 10 years and the results are startling in terms of how fathers and

11:40 children and the children's mothers are significant, others are grandparents

11:47 relate to this experience of even though their fathers are away, letting the

11:55 children know that their fathers still have meaning and a great deal of meaning

12:03 to their lives and so as we meander our way through trying to figure out how do

12:11 we really make our world a better place in which to live, how do we provide for

12:18 those young people and think of the laws that we've tried to enact and made some

12:24 progress on such as helping young people get driver's license, foster youth get

12:33 driver's license so that they can have transportation services and get

12:41 from one place to another. The thing I'm very proud that we're close to is

12:48 providing opportunity for foster youth who have benefits due to them from

12:57 Social Security rather than having these benefits go to their payees or go to

13:05 states for operational expenses. We are getting close to having these benefits

13:13 come to foster youth themselves put into a trust fund or something for them when

13:24 they age out, helping older foster youth. Think of how meaningful it would be for

13:33 a young person aging out, reaching adulthood who's never had any real

13:42 access to resources of their own, having a few thousand dollars in a trust fund

13:50 or helping them to transition from adulthood so that they now can act

14:00 like an adult, have their own resources to go to college, have their own resources

14:07 to help get an apartment, have their own resources to have resources before they

14:15 get a job and not struggle during this period. So again I want to commend and

14:23 thank my colleagues and the Congressional Black Caucus for raising

14:29 this issue, providing direction and giving us an opportunity to recognize

14:36 that the needs are great and we want to make society a better world. I end by

14:45 thinking of one of my favorite expressions that a poet and blues singer

14:52 just said and that is that our children are the future. Teach them well, let them

15:01 lead the way, show them all the beauty they possess inside, give them a sense of

15:08 pride and if we can do that then I am confident that America, our nation,

15:16 becomes a better place in which to live. So thank you both and I yield back.

15:23 Thank you so much Representative Davis. I'd like to now yield to myself. Today I

15:30 rise to discuss the disparities that black children and families have within

15:33 our nation's foster care system. Study after study has shown that black

15:37 children in the United States statistically spend more time in foster

15:41 care and are significantly less likely to be reunified with their families.

15:46 We have a moral obligation to address the glaring disparities that persist

15:50 within our child welfare system. Nationwide, the average number of days

15:54 for children to exit foster care is 633 days. Yet for black children, we have an

16:01 average number of days which is a staggering 743. In my home

16:08 state of Florida, the average number of days for black children to exit foster

16:11 care is 633 days which is the largest number, average number, of any racial

16:18 group. These discrepancies speak volumes about the systemic barriers that hinder

16:22 the timely reunification of black children with their families. These

16:27 numbers represent the extensive damage being done

16:32 by the children welfare system to the well-being of black children in Florida

16:36 and throughout our country. These disparities perpetuate a cycle of

16:40 instability and trauma and exacerbate existing inequalities, perpetuating a

16:45 system that is disproportionately affecting communities of color. We cannot

16:50 afford to ignore these disparities. Each statistic represents a child

16:54 with hopes, dreams, and a future that should not be denied because of the

17:02 color of their skin or the shortcomings of the system. We must commit to

17:06 addressing the systemic issues that disproportionately affect black children

17:10 in foster care. Together we can build a child welfare system that truly supports

17:15 and nurtures every child, giving them the foundation they need to succeed. I'd like

17:20 to now yield to my co-anchor Jonathan Jackson.

17:24 Mr. Speaker, I'd like to first thank the Honorable Congresswoman from the great

17:34 state of Florida, the Honorable Sheila Shurphilis McCormick. Madam Speaker, today

17:41 I rise because June is National Reunification Month and we owe it to

17:46 black families not to be silent about what the child welfare system has done

17:52 to them in both tragic and traumatic ways. I say to you today the effects of

17:58 having been a devastating and long-lasting on our children and the

18:04 fact that we even have to have a National Reunification Month says it all.

18:10 How could it even be possible that a system that purports to help black

18:15 families has been so chiefly responsible for the separation of the very families

18:22 it supposedly exists to serve? This kind of morose contradiction cannot be

18:29 allowed to persist and linger because whether some people in this country are

18:34 willing to admit it or not, families come in all shapes and sizes. Families come in

18:41 all colors and configurations and they even come in various economic conditions

18:47 and levels of education but all of them are still families and all of them

18:54 deserve our commitment. All of them are depending on the work we do in this

18:59 chamber and the members of this body cannot just care about the families that

19:04 remind them of their own. No matter the race or configuration of a particular

19:09 family, we are here to serve every family in this country and whether we care

19:16 about all American families or in truth is it that we only care about some and

19:22 mostly none. Black families deserve all the rights and opportunities extended to

19:29 every other family in this country. In fact, considering the historical assault

19:34 on this country's institutions and policies against black families, one

19:41 might even suggest that black families deserve to have more than most. We have

19:47 been through a lot. I'm honored to be a member of this congressional body to

19:53 represent the first congressional district of the state of Illinois and

19:57 when I think that of the life of a young child that was kidnapped from West

20:02 Africa in the name of Phyllis Wheatley in 1753 who was manumitted from slavery

20:09 in 1773. Our nation has come a long way but let us never forget a child had been

20:18 kidnapped that was eight years of age and they approximated her age because of

20:22 the size of her teeth that had to go up and talk to John Hancock and others and

20:27 had to cite poetry that we later came to find out were anagrams an absolute

20:35 brilliant child and she was the first person of African ancestry from 1619 to

20:43 1753 to have been manumitted from slavery. And I want us to know that black

20:49 families are more valuable simply because they've been through so much and

20:53 black families just don't have their value because they've been through so

20:58 much it's because of the compassion they've had to grow. Not one family is

21:03 more valuable than the others. We all have different experiences and sometimes

21:08 they've had long-lasting and a devastating legacy of neglect that is

21:12 too often resulted in outright violence. We rise tonight to reflect on the role

21:18 of this tragic system and how we might strengthen bonds and not just perpetuate

21:24 historical problems and systemic norms in the child welfare system that has

21:30 torn so many families apart. I am convinced now more than ever that we

21:35 must do whatever we can to reduce the need for foster care and strengthen

21:41 families in whichever configuration they are formed. Until this system of a child

21:48 welfare can see the value in keeping families together we must hold the

21:52 system accountable for what we know to be right and what we do we also have to

21:58 know is the right thing. We know that yes every child should be protected and they

22:04 still need their mothers and their fathers no matter the frailty and the

22:09 conditions that they suffer from and yes children should have their basic needs

22:13 met too but they still need their grandmothers and grandfathers. Our child

22:19 welfare system should not separate children. Our child fostering system

22:24 that's supposed to help feed and nourish children should not separate children

22:29 under any case. Every child has a brother or sister deserves to have a

22:34 relationship with their brother or the sister they possess and in as much as

22:39 children should be protected from whatever seek who from whatever seeks to

22:45 threaten their integrity of their lives it is also the case that no child should

22:50 be erroneously or permanently separated from people who love them. We must change

22:57 the economic conditions and political factors that make it even possible for

23:02 black children to end up not being cared for by their relatives because of a lack

23:07 of capacity and resources. There is a reason black families are more likely to

23:13 be investigated by Child Protective Services and to have their children

23:17 removed in place and out of home care. There is a reason more than 50% of black

23:24 children in the US will experience a child welfare investigation before their

23:29 18th birthday and 10% of black children will be placed into foster care. These

23:36 are not accidental occurrences but rather they are the manifestation of a deep and

23:41 pervasive systemic bias. Black children spend more time in foster care. Black

23:47 children have more placements and yes black children are less likely to be

23:53 reunified with their families when somebody's needs to stand up for those

23:58 who cannot stand up for themselves and since the children of our community

24:03 cannot speak on the floor of this chamber tonight we dare to speak for

24:08 them. Tonight we pick up the standard for their cause and declare emphatically on

24:14 their behalf let these children return home to loving families. Let them be

24:21 treated with respect. Let's give them the presumption of innocence and virtue that

24:27 they deserve and let them be reunited with the kindred spirit that

24:32 produced them and continues to love them in spite of the challenges that they

24:38 face. This pattern of unjustified investigations and prolonged

24:44 separations must be brought to an end not just for the sake of the children

24:49 but also for the sake of the nation's future. Unless the children of our

24:54 community are returned to the loving arms of their family no child in this

25:00 country is safe. No child can sleep easily at night but we will not rest

25:07 until the circle is restored and until the village can once again decide for

25:12 itself what is best for our children. So as we work to keep them safe let us live

25:19 to make them free because the night shines light in the darkness and the

25:25 darkness cannot overcome it alone. We thank God for the life the living and

25:31 the legacy of the Honorable Phyllis Wheatley a child that was separated and

25:36 was the first to be manumitted to be freed in America. A child that was

25:42 kidnapped that God had born free that had to have her rights restored as a

25:48 human being. Madam Speaker I'd like to now turn yield my time and thank the

25:56 Honorable Sheila Shurphilis McCormick from the great state of Florida for

26:00 continued service. Thank you so much Representative Jackson and thank you for

26:04 your passionate speech and being a great co-anchor. Madam Speaker I rise

26:09 today I rise to discuss how historical trauma and systemic racism have

26:15 perpetuated cycles of intergenerational poverty and have disproportionately

26:20 impacted the welfare of black children in America. We must acknowledge a painful

26:26 truth by the age of 18 one of every a hundred children in America will

26:31 experience the court-ordered termination of their parents right. This stark

26:35 statistic is even more alarming for black children nationwide who are 2.4

26:41 times more likely than their white counterparts to endure the devastating

26:46 loss of parental rights. In my home state of Florida black children are 1.3 times

26:53 more likely to experience this. These numbers represent the lives of children

26:58 torn from their families often due to circumstances rooted in historical and

27:02 structural inequalities. Historical trauma rooted in centuries of

27:06 enslavement segregation and discrimination continue to echo through

27:11 generations. Structural racism further exacerbates these challenges manifesting

27:18 in biased policies and practices that disproportionately affect black families

27:22 in the child welfare system. Intergenerational poverty is both a cause

27:28 and consequence of child welfare involvement. Families trapped in cycles

27:33 of poverty should face challenges in providing the necessary resources and

27:37 support for their children. This economic instability often leads to increased

27:43 scrutiny and intervention from child welfare services perpetuating a cycle of

27:48 disruption and disadvantaging. Children have better

27:54 outcomes in life when they are nurtured and cared for by their own families. We

27:59 need to reimagine and reform our approach to child welfare to ensure that

28:05 it is fair equitable and supportive of family unity. Our children's future and

28:10 the future of our nation depends on what we do here today in Congress to redirect

28:16 and make sure that most children get to stay with their families while protecting

28:20 the children who need it. Madam Speaker you've heard from my

28:25 distinguished colleagues about the foster care system and the issues facing

28:29 the black community. All issues of great importance to the Congressional Black

28:33 Caucus, our constituents, Congress and all Americans tonight. With that, Madam

28:38 Speaker, I'd like to yield back. Does the gentlelady have a motion? Madam Speaker,

28:46 I motion to adjourn the House at this time. The question is on the motion to

28:51 adjourn. Those in favor say aye.

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