Help Keep Adoption Affordable in America

Below is a letter to the House Committee on Ways and means regarding expanding and making permanent the Adoption Tax Credit. This tax credit is set to expire at the end of 2010. If you believe adoption is an important option for American citizens, and for orphans here and worldwide please write a letter to the committee. Feel free to cut and paste my letter below and email it to Chairman Rangel at http://waysandmeans.house.gov/singlepages.aspx?NewsID=10470

Dear Chairman Rangel and the House Committee on Ways and Means –

Regarding H.R.213 - Adoption Tax Relief Guarantee Act of 2009:To repeal the sunset of the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 with respect to the expansion of the adoption credit and adoption assistance programs.

I believe it is very important for the House to expand the adoption credit and adoption assistance program beyond the year 2010. This adoption tax credit makes adoption a feasible option for American citizens both here in the US and also abroad with international adoption. The current fees associated with adoption are very high and without this tax credit adoption is out of reach of the average American.

Adoption domestically promotes additional options for women who have unintended pregnancies. It also creates a way for women to provide loving and caring homes for children they cannot otherwise provide for.

International adoption not only provides loving homes for orphans across the globe but also promotes international good will towards the American people in the countries where American citizens are allowed and encouraged to adopt. In Ethiopia, the citizens of Ethiopia are overwhelmingly positive about the United States of America and much of this is due to the amazing acts of American citizens to sacrifice their time, energy and finances to bring Ethiopian orphans home to a loving family in the United States.

The average family who adopts both domestically and internationally are not the “Angelina Jolies” or “Madonnas” of the world. They are average middle class American citizens who posses the amazing American spitit – that we can make a difference, we can change the world one person at a time. What most do not posses is the financial means to undergo an adoption that on average costs upwards of $25,000.

In these tough financial times it is tax credits like the Adoption Tax credit that continue to show the American people that our leaders, our government, care about their people, and values the caring and loving heart of the American People.

We ask that you please expand the Adoption Tax Credit beyond 2010 and make it a permanent tax credit.

Sincerely,
Kelly and Michael Little