The Empire of Lies: How Congress Ignored Nancy Schaefer’s Warning and Allowed CPS to Destroy Families

A System Built on Broken Promises

America has long declared itself a nation that protects the vulnerable, especially its children. Politicians make speeches about “family values,” government officials promise safety and justice, and agencies like Child Protective Services (CPS) claim to exist for the welfare of children. However, for thousands of families, including mine, the reality is very different. Behind the walls of juvenile courts and the offices of child welfare agencies, a machine fueled by money and political power operates with little accountability.

I know this not only because of my lived experience, but because countless reports, investigations, and scholarly works confirm what parents like me have been shouting for years: children are being treated as commodities, and families are being torn apart not for safety, but for profit.

This is not new information. In fact, Nancy Schaefer, a Georgia State Senator, warned Congress about this corruption back in 2008. She wrote in her report, The Corrupt Business of Child Protective Services, that caseworkers and social workers “are very often guilty of fraud. They withhold and destroy evidence. They fabricate evidence and they seek to terminate parental rights unnecessarily. However, when charges are made against Child Protective Services, the charges are ignored” (Page, 2023).

Schaefer’s warning was clear: CPS was incentivized to remove children, not reunify families. She called it an industry of child-snatching. And instead of listening to her, the political establishment silenced her. She lost her Senate seat, and in 2010, she died under suspicious circumstances.

The Economics of Family Destruction

In the years since Schaefer’s report, research has only confirmed her findings. Economist Isabella Pesavento (2021) explains that the foster care system is plagued by misaligned incentives that prioritize agency earnings over children’s well-being (Pesavento, 2021). Federal funding, particularly through Title IV-E of the Social Security Act, pays states and private agencies for every child kept in foster care. The longer a child stays, the more money flows.

The result is tragic. As of 2018, over 125,000 children in foster care were waiting to be adopted, a staggering 25 percent increase since 2012 (Pesavento, 2021). Yet only about half of them are ever adopted. On average, these children wait four years before finding a permanent home—if they ever do. Instead of being reunited with their parents or placed with loving adoptive families, many age out of the system entirely, left without support, stability, or safety nets.

Research consistently shows that adoption out of foster care improves outcomes for children and society. Children adopted from foster care are more likely to succeed in education, employment, and social relationships, and less likely to end up in the criminal justice system. Each successful adoption even saves taxpayers around $143,000 in long-term costs (Pesavento, 2021). Yet the system drags its feet. The truth is, there’s more financial incentive to keep children in foster care than to reunite or adopt them.

Profits Over Children

The U.S. Senate Finance Committee’s investigation into private foster care providers exposed shocking truths. Companies like Mentor Network, one of the nation’s largest providers, were caught placing children in abusive homes to maximize revenue. Former staff admitted that success was measured not in child well-being but in how many “heads are in beds at midnight.” In some states, Mentor earned profit margins as high as 44 percent from government-funded foster care contracts (Pesavento, 2021).

This was not an isolated case. In Oregon, a nonprofit called Give Us This Day misused more than $1 million in federal funds, with its founder spending taxpayer dollars on luxury shopping and personal expenses instead of feeding foster children (Pesavento, 2021). In Los Angeles, the Children’s Trust Fund requested money for children it did not even have in its care, funneling resources into personal accounts rather than to the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) (Pesavento, 2021).

The problem goes deeper than greedy agencies. Government officials themselves are complicit. The Senate investigation revealed contracts written to benefit providers, not children, with complicated rules designed to entrench powerful organizations. Lobbyists with close ties to lawmakers, including family members of county supervisors, ensured that agencies like Mentor and MAXIMUS kept winning contracts—even after reports of abuse, neglect, and deaths in their care (Pesavento, 2021).

As Pesavento (2021) notes, this is rent-seeking behavior, where private interests manipulate laws and policies to enrich themselves at the expense of vulnerable children (Pesavento, 2021). This is exactly what Nancy Schaefer tried to stop.

Children at the Crossfire of Drugs and Trafficking

While CPS and its private contractors chase federal dollars, America’s children face growing dangers. The fentanyl crisis has exploded: in 2021, more than 11,000 pounds of fentanyl entered the U.S., much of it smuggled through the southern border into San Diego (Page, 2023). Between 2019 and 2021, adolescent overdose deaths increased by 109 percent, with nearly 90 percent involving fentanyl (Page, 2023).

The trafficking crisis is just as dire. In 2021, the National Crime Information Center reported over 521,000 missing person reports, including 39,000 active cases involving children under 21 after purges. Studies estimate that up to 44 percent of runaways are sexually trafficked (Page, 2023). Meanwhile, social media platforms like Instagram and Snapchat are being exploited by traffickers to target children, often disguising fentanyl as candy or pushing dangerous connections online (Page, 2023).

The overlap is impossible to ignore: children removed from families are funneled into a foster care system where money changes hands for every placement, while other children are left to be preyed upon by drug dealers and traffickers. Both crises—state-sponsored family separation and rampant child exploitation—feed off each other, leaving children in the crosshairs.

The Federal Power Grab and the Erosion of State Authority

When Nancy Schaefer exposed CPS corruption, she also pointed to a deeper problem: the erosion of state authority under the weight of federal funding and federal control. The case of United States v. Schaefer (2007) illustrates this. In that case, the Tenth Circuit overturned federal child pornography convictions, ruling that the government had failed to prove the images crossed state lines (Frommell, 2009).

Congress responded with the Effective Child Pornography Prosecution Act of 2007, expanding federal jurisdiction to cover virtually all online transmissions (Frommell, 2009). Legal scholars argue that this was an overreaction that sacrificed state authority in favor of federal overreach, while doing little to address the root causes of child exploitation (Frommell, 2009).

What does this mean for families? It means that the same federal government that rewards states for removing children also controls the legal framework, leaving families with little recourse. Oversight is weak, accountability is rare, and secrecy is the system’s shield. Once again, profits and politics outweigh the cries of children and parents begging to be reunited.

A Call Congress Cannot Ignore

My book, Stolen Children by CPS, is not just a memoir—it is evidence of a broader national crisis. My children were taken from me not because I was unfit, but because of lies, manipulation, and a system that had no interest in the truth. My story is one of many. Across the nation, parents—especially vulnerable, low-income, minority, and LGBT parents—are being targeted, silenced, and stripped of their children.

Senator Schaefer told Congress the truth. She told them that CPS was incentivized to break families, and she warned that every child taken meant more federal dollars in the system. Instead of reforming the laws, Congress allowed the problem to grow. Today, the evidence is undeniable. The machine she exposed has become an empire of lies, devastating families while protecting its own power.

It is time for Congress to listen. It is time to end the secrecy, the financial incentives, and the corrupt partnerships with private agencies that profit off our children’s suffering. It is time for transparency, accountability, and a national commitment to keeping families together whenever possible.

Nancy Schaefer gave her life trying to tell us. The question now is: will America finally hear her?

What Nancy Schaefer Warned Congress About (2008 Report)

Warning	Summary	Quote / Reference
Fabrication & Withholding of Evidence	Caseworkers and social workers were accused of withholding, destroying, and fabricating evidence to justify taking children.	“Caseworkers and social workers ‘are very often guilty of fraud. They withhold and destroy evidence. They fabricate evidence and they seek to terminate parental rights unnecessarily.’”
CPS as a “Protected Empire”	Schaefer described CPS as a bureaucratic system that shields itself from accountability and keeps taking children.	She concluded that CPS “has become a ‘protected empire’ built on taking children and separating families.”
Broken System and Lack of Accountability	Argued that CPS operates without checks, mismanages cases—including unnecessary removals—and leaves families powerless.	She noted: “I have witnessed ruthless behavior… I am convinced there is no responsibility and no accountability in the system.”

References

Pesavento, I. M. (2021). How misaligned incentives hinder foster care adoption. Cato Journal, 41(1), 139–158. Retrieved from HeinOnline

Page, S. (2023). Drug and human trafficking: A deadly pandemic threatening our children. Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, 28(1), 17–19. Retrieved from JPANDS

Frommell, D. M. (2009). Pedophiles, politics, and the balance of power: The fallout from United States v. Schaefer and the erosion of state authority. Denver University Law Review, 86(4), 1155–1178. Retrieved from HeinOnline

Nancy Schaefer Warning Congress