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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 intercountry adoptions and to increase awareness of,
and support for, adoption.
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///A 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.
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///A 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 intercountry adoptions
qualify for the adoption tax credit.
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///A was an active participant in drafting the Hague
Convention on Intercountry Adoption and the Intercountry Adoption Act to
implement it.
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///A supported the Adoption and Safe Families Act of
1997 and its reauthorization 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.
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///A 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.
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///A 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 .
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