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In Good Standing Adoption Agencies Act of 2026
To provide for the Secretary of Health and Human Services to maintain a national list of licensed private child placement agencies, and for other purposes.
Summary
This bill requires states to annually submit to the Department of Health and Human Services a list of private child placement agencies that are licensed, in good standing, and tax-exempt nonprofits operating within their state. The Department must compile these state lists into a publicly available national registry of licensed adoption agencies maintained by the U.S. Children's Bureau. The Department must also submit annual reports to Congress identifying any licensed agencies not on the national list and documenting disciplinary actions states have taken against private adoption agencies. States that fail to submit their lists will lose eligibility for federal adoption and legal guardianship incentive payments.
AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.
Sponsor (1)
1 cosponsor
Money behind the sponsor
Top reported contributors to Jefferson Shreve’s campaign committee (2024 cycle) — who funds the bill’s sponsor, not a claim about this bill. Data from FEC.
- RUNNEBOHM CONSTRUCTION, INC. $4,300
- THE HERITAGE GROUP $3,561
- ZINK DISTRIBUTING $3,300
- TARBERT PROPERTIES LP $3,300
- PATRIOT PRODUCTS LLC $3,300
Organizations whose employees gave the most — itemized individual contributions grouped by the donor’s reported employer (FEC Schedule A). Full finance for Jefferson Shreve → · Outside spending →
Actions (2)
- Jan 23, 2026 Referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means. · house
- Jan 23, 2026 Introduced in House
Similar bills (6)
Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.
Full text
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
January 23, 2026
Mr. Shreve introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means
A BILL
To provide for the Secretary of Health and Human Services to maintain a national list of licensed private child placement agencies, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “In Good Standing Adoption Agencies Act of 2026”.
SEC. 2. NATIONAL LIST OF LICENSED CHILD PLACEMENT AGENCIES.
(a) In General.—Section 474 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C.
674) is amended by adding at the end the following:
“(h) National List of Licensed Child Placement Agencies.—
“(1) State reporting.—
“(A) In general.—Not later than January 1 of each fiscal year, a State with a plan approved under this part for the fiscal year shall submit to the Secretary a list of private child placement agencies that, as of the end of the preceding fiscal year, were licensed or accredited by, and in good standing with, the State and exempt from Federal income tax by reason of section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986.
“(B) Child placement agency.—In subparagraph (A), the term ‘child placement agency’ means an agency that places children in prospective adoptive homes.
“(2) National list.—The Secretary, through the United States Children’s Bureau, shall compile and maintain a publicly available list consisting of each list most recently submitted by a State under paragraph (1).
“(3) Annual reports to congress.—Not later than the 2nd December 31 after the date of the enactment of this subsection, and annually thereafter, the Secretary shall submit to the Congress a written report that contains the list maintained under paragraph (2) and identifies any child placement agency that is licensed by a State and is not on the list, and a specification of any disciplinary actions that a State has taken against a private child placement agency.”.
(b) Loss of Eligibility for Adoption and Legal Guardianship Incentive Payments for Failure of State To Comply With List Submission Requirement.—Section 473A(b) of such Act (42 U.S.C. 673b(b)) is amended—
(1) by striking “and” at the end of paragraph (3);
(2) by striking the period at the end of paragraph (4) and inserting “; and”; and
(3) by adding at the end the following:
“(5) the State has complied with section 474(h)(1) with respect to the preceding fiscal year.”. <all>
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