As an adult adoptee, and the chairwoman of the NC Coalition for Adoption Reform, I am angered and furious with Senator Douglas Berger for impacting SB869 from being passed today. He is an adult adoptee, and today he let his own PERSONAL feelings on adoption stand in the way to stop a perfectly good piece of legislation.
Our organization jumped through many hoops with the NC Legislature this session just to be able to get our bills to be heard. We started out with HB2185 and HB2186. HB2185 would have held the adoption agencies who are participating in the confidential intermediary programs accountable for what they are doing.
HB2186 would have allowed for adult full and 1/2 biological siblings as well as other family members to be able to search for an adult adoptee. This bill would have also allowed for those older adult adoptees who are finding a grave at the end of their search to be able to obtain a copy of the death certificate. And finally it would have allowed the agencies to search for other family members when a birth parent was found to be deceased.
These bills passed out of the House over a week ago, and went to the Senate and was assigned to the Judiciary I committee. We found out the chair Senator Martin Nesbitt had a problem with the death certificate option. So we compromised and stripped that part out.
Then a ruling was made that House bills which came out of a House Select Committee wouldn't be heard this session in the Senate. I want to personally thank our sponsor Representative Margaret H. Dickson who worked so hard and diligently on our legislation. She found out that if she could find another 'avenue' (a bill which was not going pass in the House) we could strip that bill and put both of ours in and it would be able to be heard in the Senate.
I have to also say a huge thank you to Senator Julia Boseman for allowing one of her bills SB869 to be used for this purpose. We put both of our bills into this one and it went to the House yesterday where it was heard.
However once again something was thrown at us. It seemed members from DHHS had contacted the appropriations committee chair, Representative Mickey Michaux of Durham, and told him they needed funding to do the reporting.
I asked Representative Michaux in an email, why we have to fund a State agency to report on information they are already collecting. Especially when adult adoptees and birth parents who are utilizing the confidential intermediary program are already paying large sums of money to the agencies. So once again we compromised and took out the reporting bill from SB869
The bill finally came back in this morning and passed in the House 102 to 2. Representative Dickson then took the bill over to Senator Tony Rand. Apparently this is when Senator Doug Berger told both of them that if this bill were to move forward he would speak LOUDLY against this legislation. So, instead of having our bill go down in flames at the very end of the short session we pulled our bill.
What does this mean now for adult adoptees who use the CI program? First of all they will have to pay the agency fees (anywhere from $100.00 to upward of $700.00 to some agencies). If they find a birthparent deceased, they will have to petition the court system. Hopefully they will find a judge that will say they have "just cause" for the agency to search for other family members. Then they will have to go back to the agency and repay these fees all over again so the agency can then search for the other family members.
I would hope anyone who reads this and knows anyone associated with adoption (adult adoptee, 1/2 or full biological sibling, other family member of a biological parent) would pass along this information.
If they live in Franklin, Vance, Granville or Warren counties I would ask they contact Senator Doug Berger (you can look up how at http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/gascripts/members/viewMember.pl?sChamber=Senate&nUserID=145, and let him know how disapointed they are.
Our Senators should have shown us our government works for everyone, including adult adoptees and thier biological family members.
And as the people of North Carolina who elect our Senators, we should NEVER allow them to let their own PERSONAL experiences or feelings on a subject, to stand in the way of beneficial legislation being passed.
