Legislation

Legislative Activities

///A members participate in both state and national legislative activities , including offering expert testimony to legislators and assisting in the drafting of new laws . ///A members have assisted in the drafting of many state adoption codes and have worked at the national level to bring order to inter-country adoptions and to increase awareness of, and support for, adoption.

  • AAAA worked with Congress and the Administration to remove a bias in the tax code against independent placements for adoption. As part of a new uniform definition of a child for tax purposes, the updated language on independent placements was signed into law on October 4, 2004.
  • AAAA supported passage of the original adoption tax credit and exclusion from income of employer adoption assistance payments . In addition, the Academy supported the successful efforts to extend, increase, and technically amend the provision. The Academy also submitted extensive comments to the Internal Revenue Service which were incorporated into Revenue Procedure 2005-31, regarding the procedure the Service follows in determining when inter-country adoptions qualify for the adoption tax credit.
  • AAAA supported making the adoption tax credit permanent as part of the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 which was signed into law on January 2, 2013.
  • AAAA was an active participant in drafting the Hague Convention on Inter-country Adoption and the Inter-country Adoption Act to implement it.
  • AAAA supported the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 and its re-authorization in 2003. The act created the Adoption Incentive Program, among other mechanisms, to increase the number of children moving out of state foster care systems and into adoptive families and other appropriate placement situations.
  • AAAA has long encouraged Congress to enact amendments to the Indian Child Welfare Act to help ensure that adoptions of children of Native-American ancestry are conducted as humanely, efficiently, and conclusively as possible with due regard to the child's cultural background.
  • AAAA was an advisor to the National Conference on Commissioners on Uniform State Laws in drafting the Uniform Adoption Act, which provides the states with a uniform approach to adoption procedures .