Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 117.djvu/3129

 117 STAT. 3110

PROCLAMATION 7731—NOV. 7, 2003

My Administration is supporting family caregivers in their efforts to provide comfort and support to their loved ones. The National Family Caregiver Support Program, managed by the Administration on Aging of the Department of Health and Human Services, gives family caregivers counseling, information, respite care, and supplemental services. As we mark National Family Caregivers Month, we express our gratitude to family caregivers, and celebrate the great blessings they bring to their families and to our Nation. NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim November 2003 as National Family Caregivers Month. I encourage all Americans to honor and support family members, friends, and neighbors who assume important caregiving responsibilities. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this thirty-first day of October, in the year of our Lord two thousand three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and twenty-eighth. GEORGE W. BUSH

Proclamation 7731 of November 7, 2003

National Adoption Month, 2003 By the President of the United States of America A Proclamation Every year, tens of thousands of American families answer the call to adopt a child. During National Adoption Month, we recognize America’s adoptive and foster families. We also commit to helping all of our children, including those waiting in foster care, find safe, permanent, and loving homes. On November 22, communities across the country will come together to celebrate National Adoption Day by finalizing the adoptions of over 3,000 children from foster care. On this day and all this month, we honor families that have opened their hearts and homes to a child. The number of children who are adopted has increased in recent years. Still, thousands of children in our country—many with special needs— continue to wait in foster care for an adoptive family. We are taking important steps to make adoption more commonplace and to protect the well-being of our children. We have eased the financial burden of adoption by nearly doubling the maximum adoption tax credit. We expanded the Promoting Safe and Stable Families Program, which encourages adoption at the local level and supports adoptive families with services that ease a child’s transition into a new family and help to strengthen the family. The Department of Health and Human Services provides incentives to States that increase the number of children adopted from State-supervised foster care. Last year, my Administration launched the first Federal adoption website, www.AdoptUSKids.org, which features pictures and profiles

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