[sak9645]

There is no campaign to make the tax credit go away.

The tax credit does expire in 2010, unless it is renewed. And, judging from the last time the tax credit was set to expire, when there was a pretty strong base of support for extending it, it will probably be extended again.

That is not to say that we should sit on our duffs. We definitely should be ready to encourage our Senators and Representatives to vote for a reauthorizaton when it comes up.

We should also be ready to support an increase in the credit. Now, that is a bit less likely to occur, with all of the other priorities that Congress has. But it certainly makes sense to try. We need to point out the increase in fees for things like the I-600A and citizenship certificates, and talk about how the longer wait times have meant that families must update their homestudies and redo other paperwork.

If we are going to be successful, we need to work in concert with the domestic adoption people. One priority of the domestic people is to keep the provision in the current law that allows people who adopt children with special needs domestically to take the full credit, even if they don't have that much in qualifying adoption expenses.

This provision is important. First off, while many people adopting children with disabilities through the state foster care system incur virtually zero costs on the actual adoption, they often wind up spending a lot of money to adapt their homes and vehicles to accommodate the children's situations. So allowing them to take the credit makes sense.

Members of Congress also like the notion that the bill should do SOMETHING special to help kids in the U.S. foster care system to find permanent homes. I have no problem with keeping this provision, since it doesn't hurt the internationally adopted children in any way.

In short, if we all work in concert with the domestic adoption people and support provisions that make sense and do not raise red flags in Congress, I think we can expect to see the tax credit continue.

Sharon