members of Congress. The letter will go to President Obama and will urge him
to prioritize the matter of the pipeline families trapped by the Russian
adoption ban and find a solution when he meets with Putin at the G8 Summit
in mid-June.
The impacted families urgently need your help to support the matched
families on humanitarian grounds. We have support from the Senate and House
in 43 States but need your help. Please consider calling your Senators and
Reps in their DC office and urge them to sign the Landrieu Letter (Israel is
spearheading in the House). We need every State's support to get the
President to put our children who we have already met and we love on the
agenda when he meets with Putin in June.
You can see whether your senators and representatives have signed on here.
The right hand column will show names and phone numbers of those who have
not yet signed, listed by state.
House: http://tinyurl.com/pktvh6w
Senate: http://tinyurl.com/qa989p9
If you need a sample script when talking to your congresspeople:
http://tinyurl.com/ozdocmf
Senators and Reps who wish to sign should contact Whitney Reitz in Senator
Landrieu's office at 202-224-5824 or email her at
whitney_reitz@landrieu.senate.
The deadline for signing this letter is the end of business today, Friday,
May 24th.
Thank you for your commitment to support the 230 families and 300 kids who
are waiting to be united as families.
The text of the letter is below and here
http://tinyurl.com/ovaqkb6
President Barack H. Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, D.C. 20500
Dear Mr. President:
We are writing to request your assistance with finding a solution for the
small number of Russian orphans who have already met and bonded with their
American families, yet were not able to have their adoptions completed due
to the Russian adoption ban. We understand that you will be meeting with
President Putin in June during the G8 Summit. We ask that you prioritize
this issue and seek commitment from President Putin to finding a
humanitarian solution.
Politics between the United States and Russia have become personal to
several hundred Russian orphans and the families in the United States hoping
to adopt them. These are children without parents, families, or homes. Many
are in need of urgent medical care; all are in need of a future filled with
promise. These children have no voice. These children have already been
promised homes in America, and they have bonded with these American parents.
The Government of Russia's unwillingness to allow their cases to be
completed adds yet another trauma to their young lives.
We have met many of these families and spoken with them frequently. They
remain completely dedicated to these children, and they are trying
everything in their power to help them. Approximately 230 of these families
had traveled to Russia before the adoption ban to spend time with the
children with whom they were matched. These devoted families already think
of the children they were matched with as their sons and daughters.
Mr. President, we must find a humanitarian solution for these children and
these families. We were cautiously optimistic when the Government of Russia
sent a delegation to the United States a few weeks ago, but the outcome of
that visit was disappointing.
We ask you to raise this issue with President Putin directly in the hopes
that two world leaders can step back for a moment and find a way out of the
political morass for a few hundred wounded children. Based on the briefings
we have received from the Department of State and U.S. Citizenship and
Immigration Services, we know that there are options for bringing these
children home, despite the ban. The issue, then, becomes a question of
convincing the Russians to put the children's needs first. We thank you in
advance for your efforts on behalf of this group of children and families.
Sincerely,
Names of Congressional Members
