In March of this year, a handful of lawmakers gathered in the State House's gleaming Nurses Hall to be celebrated as "superheroes for kids" by advocates for child care and adoption services. The thrust of the event was to convince the Legislature to close a legal loophole advocates say could result in the custody of children being sold off on the internet.
Now, with less than two weeks to go before lawmakers recess for the rest of the year, it looks like the adoption safety measure may need a real superhero to save it from a quiet death within a legislative committee without a vote.
"Re-homing" of adopted children occurs when custody of a child transfers between two parties with little or no oversight from authorities.
Bill sponsor Sen. Jennifer Flanagan told WGBH News in March that some adoptive parents take advantage of a legal loophole that allows them to get rid of troublesome children they no longer want to take care of. In the worst cases, these children are offered up on the darker reaches on the internet and handed over to new adoptive parents in back-alley meet-up locations.
Flannagan's bill adds restrictions to re-homing, forces adoption agencies to be upfront about a child's mental and physical background and requires state authorities to be alerted when custody changes hands. The bill was heard publicly in May and unanimously approved by the Senate on November 5. The bill was then sent over to the House Ways and Means Committee, the powerful fiscal managers of the House, where it has sat unmoved since November 9.
Erin Bradley, the executive director of the Children's League of Massachusetts, called the bill's stagnant status so late in the session "shocking" for advocates and "eye-opening" to her own group.
"It really seemed like it was moving," Bradley said. The League had a few meetings with House Ways and Means staff about the bill and were told the measure is on the list of bills to complete before the July 31 hard stop for formal lawmaking.
Bradley likened the adoption bill to the law banning "upskirting" photography in 2014. One day after the state's highest court ruled that a man charged with taking photos up women's skirts on the subway didn't technically commit a crime, the Legislature moved at supersonic speed to pass a bill correcting the loophole. One day after that, it was signed into law.
"And here we are knowing that this is a bad thing that happens to children in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, even though we don't know how many kids it happens to, it's one of those things that's almost a no-brainer to us," Bradley said.
When asked why the bill has been stalled in the committee for over eight months, House Ways and Means spokesman Christopher Bennett wrote in an email that the "bill remains under review by the Committee." No details were offered as to the specifics of the committee's review. Bennett told WGBH News back in March that the bill "remains under review by the Committee and I am not able to offer anything further as to if it will be released or voted upon this session."
The re-homing legislation is one of over 500 bills currently before the House Ways and Means Committee, often the final stop bills pass through before being granted floor votes by House Speaker Robert DeLeo.
"We honestly have no idea why this bill is not moving right now," Bradley said, noting that the bill received no public opposition at its hearing. During the Senate's debate, the criminal punishments were altered a bit, but both Democrats and Republicans eagerly passed it.
"We're shocked that House Ways and Means is still waiting for the last moment to pass this bill," Bradley said. The best bet for advocates now is hope the House passes a version of the bill identical to the Senate's, so the chambers can avoid reconciling version and move it straight to Gov. Charlie Baker's desk.
Rep. Tricia Farley-Bouvier was one of the lawmakers that took part in the Children's League event back in March and said she hadn't heard any opposition to the re-homing ban bill.
Almost four months later, Farley-Bouvier is preparing to bring the bill up again next session.
"I think that the fact that it's in Ways and Means now and we have such little time left, sounds as if it's just something that we're going to have to continue to talk about," the Pittsfield Democrat told WGBH News.
"Like any bill, it takes some time to get people to understand something they're not familiar with," Rep. John Lawn (D-Watertown), the House sponsor, told WGBH News. He said he's still backing the bill, but that issues like this take time for the House to wade through the details. Most bills take years or work and multiple legislative sessions to become law.
Lawn said he spoke to House Ways and Means Chairman Rep. Brian Dempsey (D-Haverhill) about that bill and that he knows it's on Dempsey's radar. To help educate his colleagues that these incidents can happen in Massachusetts, Lawn and Rep. Kay Khan (D-Newton) held an information session for House members this year.
Asked why the re-homing bill never got past the House's budget committee, Farley-Bouvier said the issues isn't on people's radars.
"There's a lot of things fighting for priority," Farley-Bouvier said, adding that emergency changes necessary for this year's budget took up a lot of time for the Ways and Means Committee.
