A Georgia congressman is calling on the Obama administration to be more proactive in ending Russia’s ban on American adoption.
“We’re continuing to put pressure on the State Department to work through this issue,” Republican Rep. Doug Collins told the Washington Examiner. “We believe it can be worked through, and we believe we can continue to put pressure on our State Department, and hopefully on Russia, to say, ‘Let’s find an agreeable solution to this.'”
Federal Russian law has prohibited Americans from adopting children in the country since January 2013. The law came in response to the “Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act,” which passed Congress the preceding month and sought to prohibit Russian officials linked to that country’s mob from entering the United States or using the American banking system.
More than three years later, the ban has continued to prevent American families from adopting children they connected with long before the law was in place. Collins has been pressuring the State Department to take action since late 2014, but to little avail.
Related Story: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/article/2589747
Collins’ latest letter, sent in April, requested the department divulge information on any progress or efforts that have been made in recent years. The agency’s response suggested little had been done. In spite of several requests from the Examiner, the department was unable to provide any responsive documents or an immediate statement.
Observers fear the issue is going to get pushed into a new administration, more than four years after the ban initially went into effect. Collins said that the children unable to join families in the U.S. are the ones who will ultimately suffer the consequences.
“Children are separated from homes that would love them and care for them and nurse them and give them a life that they may not have,” Collins said. “What we’ve done in trying to get that lifted is something that we’re going to continue to fight for, because at the end of the day, it’s about the children and having loving homes and folks who want to nurture and care and be a part of their lives.”
