More than 200 national, state and local civil-rights, religious and child-welfare organizations joined the American Civil Liberties Union ( ACLU ) in a letter to members of Congress today opposing legislation that would authorize discrimination in the child-welfare system.
The Aderholt amendment to the House Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Bill for FY 2019 would allow child-welfare agencies receiving taxpayer funds to choose which families and children to serve regarding adoption and foster-care services.
Not only would the amendment severely decrease the already limited pool of eligible families, but it also would put the 46 states and the District of Columbia who enforce non-discrimination laws in jeopardy of losing 15 percent of their federal funding for child-welfare services.
The U.S. House Appropriations Committee recently adopted the amendment, which U.S. Rep. Robert Aderhold ( R-Alabama ) sponsored.
The letter's signatories include the American Psychological Association, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, Bend the Arc: Jewish Action, Child Welfare League of America, Family Equality Council, Interfaith Alliance, Human Rights Campaign, Lambda Legal, NAACP, National Association of Social Workers and the National Education Association, among many others. Local organizations Center on Halsted and Equality Illinois also joined the letter.
