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Adoptees United

Protecting and securing adoptee rights

Adoptee Rights Legislation

We follow and analyze state and federal legislation that could directly or indirectly impact adopted people, plus provide educational resources for advocacy.

Jump to: Federal Legislation | State Legislation | Legislative Dates | Bill Watchlist | Resources

Federal Legislation

Federal legislation that Adoptees United currently tracks and analyzes. Descriptions and analyses of these and additional federal bills are on our federal legislation page.

KEY: Support | Neutral | Oppose | Impacts intercountry adoptees

Equal Citizenship for Children Act

HR1386 [Redlined PDF]. Introduced by Rep. Yvette Clarke (NY-09) and Rep. Alma Adams (NC-12), the Equal Citizenship for Children Act would amend current law so that those who were or are under 18 years of age and residing in the United States in the legal custody of a US citizen parent (whether adoptive or biological and including naturalized US citizens) would automatically acquire US citizenship, retroactive to those born after 12:00pm EST on January 9, 1941. The person, while under the age of 18, must also have been residing in the United States as a legal permanent resident (i.e., possessed a green card) or had a “pending application to adjust status to lawful permanent resident.”

While the bill is intended to repeal the so-called “Guyer Rule,” a more than century old legal doctrine used to deny US citizenship to children born abroad to US citizen fathers—disproportionately Black fathers—the key provision in the bill provides retroactive citizenship to 1941 for those impacted by the rule. This would, in addition, assure US citizenship for intercountry adoptees so long as they had met the requirements of the Act while under the age of 18. Presumably, this would include previously deported adoptees (though this may be complicated and needs more analysis). It would not, however, apply to intercountry adoptees or others who arrived in the United States on a non-immigrant visa (e.g., a tourist/visitor visa) and who did not obtain a green card while under the age of 18. The act also dispenses with a requirement of physical custody of the child with their US citizen parent(s), and clarifies the definition of a child to include 1) “the nonmarital child of a legal custodian citizen father” and 2) the child of a US citizen parent if the parent-child relationship is recognized under US or foreign parentage laws.

The bill currently has multiple Democratic sponsors/co-sponsors in the House, and has been referred to the House Committee on Judiciary, chaired by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH).

Adoption COUNTS Act

HR6700. Would require state courts to report the number of private adoptions each year to the Children’s Bureau of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Since approximately 1975, most states and the federal government discontinued the collection of data on how many people each year were adopted through private adoptions. Today, we can only estimate how many adoptees are in the United States, and that estimate includes a great deal of ad hoc guesswork and research. Needless to say, adoptees have generally disappeared from overall statistics for almost two generations. HR6700 attempts to change that. It would require, as part of federal funding, that state courts report the number of private adoptions each year to the US Children’s Bureau. The count would also require reporting the age of the adoptee at the time of the adoption, whether the adoption was through a step-parent, legal guardian, or unrelated person, and whether the person was born as a result of gestational surrogacy. Importantly, the bill would require reporting whether the adoptive parents gained custody of the child through an international adoption placement or international guardianship. The bill is sponsored by Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-CO-5).

ADOPT Act

HR6220. Seeks to reduce unregulated and unethical practices in adoption. The Adoption Deserves Oversight, Protection, and Transparency (ADOPT) Act seeks to crack down on unlicensed for-profit baby brokers and prohibits certain advertising and payments associated with adoptions. The core provisions:

  • prohibit adoption advertising and paid private adoption services unless they are through a licensed child-placing agency or licensed attorney; and
  • restrict payments to birthmothers unless the payments are made through a licensed provider in the state where the mother lives.

State Legislation

Map of state legislation that Adoptees United currently tracks and analyzes. Additional descriptions and analyses of these bills are on our state legislative page (or click on a state to find out more).

KEY: Active • Enacted • Dead/Carried Over

2025 Adoptee Rights Legislation (Domestic) Placeholder
2025 Adoptee Rights Legislation (Domestic)

RESOURCE

State Legislative Session Dates

Dates and deadlines for the 2024 state legislative sessions.

KEY: In Session • Not Yet In Session • Adjourned • No Session

2024 Legislative Session Dates Placeholder
2024 Legislative Session Dates

Resource

Bill Watchlist

A list of selected bills that may impact adoption law and adoptee rights work, not just those we are tracking and prioritizing for attention.

GO TO WATCHLIST
Adoptees United Bill Watchlist

How the legislative process works.

A general flowchart that shows how state bills are introduced, heard, passed, and enacted—or not.

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