Tools and Resources to Equip Adoption Advocates

This comprehensive legislation protects adoptive families, children, and expectant mothers from exploitation by unlicensed adoption intermediaries and ensures that adoption providers and attorneys operate only in states where they are licensed to do so. Read our FAQs here.

Lead Sponsors: Rep. Annie Kuster (D-NH), Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-CO), Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-AL)

“This bill name says it all: Adoption deserves oversight, protections, and transparency. This bipartisan legislation provides safeguards and protections for all the parties involved with an adoption, most especially for the expectant parents considering adoption,” said Ryan Hanlon, the president and CEO of National Council For Adoption. “By eliminating the online, for-profit brokers, it will also reduce the cost of adoption and ensure that the service providers involved are licensed and overseen by proper authorities.”

The Adoptee Citizenship Act of 2024 (H.R.8617/S.4448) amends the Child Citizenship Act of 2000 to give citizenship to individuals who were legally brought to live in the United States through intercountry adoption but were unintentionally denied citizenship through a loophole in the previous bill.

Lead Sponsors: Sens. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) and Susan Collins (R-Maine)

By passing H.R. 8617/S.4448, Congress can fulfill the promise of a permanent home through intercountry adoption for all adoptees.

"This bill is a bipartisan effort to correct past loopholes that led to some adoptees not having the citizenship they were promised,” says NFCA President and CEO Ryan Hanlon. “Through no fault of their own, some adoptees were left without the full rights and responsibilities they should have – passing this bill will correct this past mistake.”

This legislation would require the Children’s Bureau to collect and maintain information regarding all private adoptions, and for other purposes.

Lead Sponsor: Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-CO)

“This legislation will ensure policymakers have accurate and useful information about adoptions in the United States,” said Ryan Hanlon, president and CEO of National Council For Adoption. “The federal government already reports on the number of intercountry adoptions and foster-care adoptions; it’s time we add private domestic adoption as well.”

This bill (H.R. 3663/S. 2895) would make the preexisting Adoption Tax Credit refundable, making thousands of adopting families newly eligible for the full credit and helping more families afford the costs of adopting a child. This would help families—especially low- and moderate- income families—recoup the thousands they incur in court and attorneys' fees, traveling expenses, and adoption fees.

Lead Senate Sponsors: Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA), Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND)

Lead House Sponsors: Rep. Danny Davis, Rep. Blake Moore

The majority of OB-GYN nursing staff are uninformed or misinformed when it comes to adoption and how to provide ethical, compassionate care to expectant, birth, and adoptive parents. 

This bill (H.R. 1475) requires the development of educational programs to close the gap in adoption education and standardize healthcare practice to ensure that the well-being and rights of everyone involved in an adoption situation are protected and respected.

Lead Sponsors: Rep. Lloyd Smucker (R-PA), Rep. Don Davis (D-NC)

“Healthcare workers often play a key role in helping individuals with an unintended pregnancy, yet too often these healthcare workers don’t know how to provide accurate, non-directive information about adoption. We’re grateful to Reps. Smucker and Davis for their leadership on this bipartisan effort to ensure that healthcare workers have the ability to support expectant parents and help them understand and make a decision about adoption,” said Ryan Hanlon, President & CEO of the National Council for Adoption.

This bill (H.R. 5540) requires the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to publish an annually updated list of adoption agencies in good standing in each state across the United States.

The bill if enacted would also require HHS to conduct a report on any disciplinary actions that states are taking against licensed agencies, providing further transparency across the country.

Lead Sponsors: Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-CO), Rep. Annie Kuster (D-NH), Rep. Lloyd Smucker (R-PA)

“It can be challenging to discern who the authorized, licensed adoption agencies are in each state,” said Ryan Hanlon, President and CEO of the National Council for Adoption. “Unfortunately, there are bad actors whose websites and online ads falsely claim they are licensed. This bipartisan legislation will allow for hopeful adoptive parents as well as pregnant parents seeking adoption information and support to determine which are licensed agencies in their state.”

This legislation would modify the Intercountry Adoption Act of 2000 to provide a limited accreditation option for performing certain adoption services.

Lead Sponsors: Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)

Accreditation helps ensure compliance with adoption standards and helps adoption agencies attract families seeking to adopt. The lack of a limited accreditation option has caused led many smaller adoption agencies to lose business or go out of business relinquish their accreditation due to existing requirements to meet standards that do not apply to them, and this bill would help provide more options for adoption for the American people.