HR 4373 and S 3616 are efforts to make the adoption tax credit permanent and refundable. Since 1997, the credit encourages and helps families adopt domestically and/or internationally. If Congress does not act, the adoption tax credit as we know it will expire in 2012. The 2013 version will exclude most adoptive families from federal adoption assistance and deter their efforts to adopt.
Part of the greatest relief we can provide a bloated child welfare system is to facilitate adoption. Fiscally speaking, it is cheaper to fund the adoption tax credit than to fund the expansive child welfare system.
While we may have a pro-choice administration, let's urge making the adoption credit permanent and refundable as perhaps one of the last vestiges of pro-life policies.