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The New York State Assembly passed a bill yesterday allowing adoptees 18 and over to request their original birth certificates starting January 2020. It passed with 126 voting for, and 2 against. A huge victory for adoptee rights advocates as this bill or ones like it have failed to make it out of committee for many years until now. Although I have been reunited with my birth mother I am still looking forward to receiving my original b.c. which I've never been allowed to see.
The New York State Assembly passed a bill yesterday allowing adoptees 18 and over to request their original birth certificates starting January 2020. It passed with 126 voting for, and 2 against. A huge victory for adoptee rights advocates as this bill or ones like it have failed to make it out of committee for many years until now. Although I have been reunited with my birth mother I am still looking forward to receiving my original b.c. which I've never been allowed to see.
So happy to see it's gotten this far! They've been saying no as long as I can remember. The biggest reason why they should give them is because these days, there are no secrets with family tree DNA sites like 23 and me, Ancestry, FTDNA, GEDmatch and My Heritage. This can present a huge issue for birth parents as people get close matches; they contact the match to see if they knew who put a baby up for adoption. Now everyone knows the secret. You just never know what family of yours has done DNA. It's very easy for adoption advocate angels to build trees or contact those matches. It can get real sticky...
Legislation cleared both legislative chambers in the final days of the session that would grant adoptees in the state over age 18 full access to their birth certificate.
New York would become the 10th state to allow adoptees unrestricted access to their birth certificates.
The measure passed 126-2 in the Assembly three weeks after it overwhelmingly passed the Senate. It now goes to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo for his approval or veto. His senior adviser, Richard Azzopardi, called it “a critically important issue.”
Speaker Carl Heastie, Health Committee Chair Richard N.Gottfried and Assemblymember David Weprin today announced the Assembly has passed legislation that would allow adoptees to obtain a certified copy of their birth certificate
Under the bill, adult adoptees 18 years and older would be able to receive a certified copy of their original long form birth certificate. If the adoptee is deceased, the adopted person's direct line of descendants, the lawful representative of such adopted person or lawful representatives of such deceased adopted person's direct line of descendants would be able to receive the birth certificate of the adoptee.
Article from two weeks ago states it was going to Cuomo for signature. In Dec 2017, he vetoed a similar bill. (Although he seems to be in favor of the idea since his stated reason for the previous veto was that the 2017 bill made the process difficult).
Of course, _anything_ can happen in the cesspool that is Albany. There's no guarantee the right payoffs were made. Yesterday was 10 days (not counting Sundays) from 6/20, when the bill was apparently sent to the Gov. If he didn't veto it, it should automatically become law.
WSJ has an article from July 1, but a subscription is needed to view. It seems to echo the previous articles about the bill being passed and awaiting signature.
They write on 6/25 that a law was passed "last week" (it is a bill - not a law). They go on to state "Governor Andrew Cuomo still has to sign this bill into law. It will become law on January 15th." So they belive a law was passed, but hasn't been signed into law, but will still become law on Jan 15. No wonder no one trusts the press any longer.
Article from two weeks ago states it was going to Cuomo for signature. In Dec 2017, he vetoed a similar bill. (Although he seems to be in favor of the idea since his stated reason for the previous veto was that the 2017 bill made the process difficult).
Of course, _anything_ can happen in the cesspool that is Albany. There's no guarantee the right payoffs were made. Yesterday was 10 days (not counting Sundays) from 6/20, when the bill was apparently sent to the Gov. If he didn't veto it, it should automatically become law.
WSJ has an article from July 1, but a subscription is needed to view. It seems to echo the previous articles about the bill being passed and awaiting signature.
They write on 6/25 that a law was passed "last week" (it is a bill - not a law). They go on to state "Governor Andrew Cuomo still has to sign this bill into law. It will become law on January 15th." So they belive a law was passed, but hasn't been signed into law, but will still become law on Jan 15. No wonder no one trusts the press any longer.
Anyone know the actual status?
I'm not finding anything about him signing it no matter what keywords I use.
The reason he didn't sign the earlier bill was because it didn't go far enough because it had certain strings attached. He was waiting to sign a bill with no restrictions to access like this year's bill. He has said he will sign it.
You can check the current status of the bill here and even request email updates:
The reason he didn't sign the earlier bill was because it didn't go far enough because it had certain strings attached. He was waiting to sign a bill with no restrictions to access like this year's bill. He has said he will sign it.
You can check the current status of the bill here and even request email updates:
The senate website now states the bill has passed, but has NOT been delivered to the Gov. Earlier articles imply the bill was sent to Cuomo on Jun 20. It's now July 10. Seems odd that a bill sits around for three weeks without being sent. If it was delivered anywhere near June 20, it should be law by now if it wasn't vetoed.
I understand why the previous bill was vetoed. I also haven't seen where Cuomo stated he would sign this one. Only that his senior advisor stated "It's a critically important issue, and we'll have to review the revised legislation." I realize Cuomo is supposed to be on board with this, but that statement isn't very encouraging.
Forgive my skeptisim, but Albany makes a cesspool look like the purest mountain spring water. This isn't real until it's signed into law. All it takes is the right political donor to make a call and all bets are off.
On a related note, I hadn't seen the full text of the approved bill until now. It seems to extend a bit beyond simple BCs:
Quote:
Section 1 provides that an adopted person eighteen years of age, or if
the adopted person is deceased, the adopted person's direct line
descendants, or the lawful representatives of such adopted person, or
lawful representatives of such deceased adopted person's direct line
descendants can obtain a certified copy of the adopted person's original
long form birth certificate, from the commissioner or a local registrar,
in the same manner as such certificates are available to persons born in
the state of New York who were not adopted. The amendment also requires
the commissioner to provide the adopted person or other authorized
person with the background information about the adopted child and the
adopted child's birth parents sent to the commissioner pursuant to
subdivision 1 of § 114 of the domestic relations law.
In addition, in the event that the commissioner does not have the
original birth certificate of an adopted person, section 1 requires
courts and other agencies that have records containing the information
that would have appeared on the adopted person's original long form
birth certificate to provide such information, including all identifying
information about the adopted person's birth parents, to the adult
adopted person or other authorized person upon a simple written request
therefor that includes proof of identity.
If I'm reading it correctly, the first paragraph simply provides for the release of a long from BC. The reference to section 114.1 would seem to keep birthparent identifying info sealed.
However, the second paragraph shocked me. If they can't provide the original BC, it looks like they have to provide "all identifying information" about the birth parents. That pretty much means the file gets unsealed.
EDITED TO ADD: The text on the website differs from the actual bill. Apparently the "identifying information" mentioned above only applies to that which would be on the long form original BC. That makes more sense.
I found this from the NY Adoptee Rights Coalition:
"The New York Assembly and Senate passed at least 1,000 bills this past session. Of those, only a small fraction have been delivered to the Governor for signature. Nearly 90 percent of all bills passed by both chambers are still awaiting the next step: delivery to the governor. This is typically a coordinated effort where the logistics of choosing which bills to consider—and when to consider them—are worked out between the legislative and executive branches. Typically, bills are packaged and sent over in bulk for consideration, and we do not have concerns about our bill making it to the governor’s desk."
Read full article here on "Where Things Stand Now" on this bill:
I found this from the NY Adoptee Rights Coalition:
Thanks much for that. The article provides some good information. Guess it is just a waiting game for now.
It is amazing that anything ever gets done in government. Over 1,000 bills that passed and are awaiting signature? On one hand, I guess you could say the legistature is working. On the other, it's a little scary that they can create so many new laws in just one session.
I found this from the NY Adoptee Rights Coalition:
"The New York Assembly and Senate passed at least 1,000 bills this past session. Of those, only a small fraction have been delivered to the Governor for signature. Nearly 90 percent of all bills passed by both chambers are still awaiting the next step: delivery to the governor. This is typically a coordinated effort where the logistics of choosing which bills to consider—and when to consider them—are worked out between the legislative and executive branches. Typically, bills are packaged and sent over in bulk for consideration, and we do not have concerns about our bill making it to the governor’s desk."
Read full article here on "Where Things Stand Now" on this bill:
Now we just have to hope that the record keepers can figure out how to process the requests starting Jan 15. Only two months away. Fingers crossed
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