[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 19 (Tuesday, January 31, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H892-H893]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


               GETTING TOUGH ON CHILD SUPPORT ENFORCEMENT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 4, 1995, the gentlewoman from Colorado [Mrs. Schroeder] is 
recognized during morning business for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. SCHROEDER. Mr. Speaker, I really appreciate this opportunity 
because today a group of bipartisan Congresswomen that have worked for 
so long and so hard on child support enforcement are once again 
offering and putting in the Record our bill on tough child support 
enforcement. We have been trying for many years to get this country to 
focus on this issue.
  It seems to us that everybody wants to talk about the mother and how 
bad the mother is, but let us realize that these children came with two 
parents, and let us talk about both parents having responsibility. 
Where is it written that the Federal Government will pick up if one 
parent decides to skip out? That is exactly what has been happening.
  Mr. Speaker, we know that when it comes to car payments, it is 
unbelievable but less than 3 percent of America's car payments go 
uncollected. They are going to dig us up and think we worshiped our 
cars. Yet when we look at child support enforcement payments, let me 
tell you, we know that that is a devastating record.
  The lowest estimate is that $34 billion went uncollected last year. 
Now, that is a lot of money. The reason we feel so strongly about this 
is that we think, had we been doing strong child support enforcement, 
we would not have to be worried about welfare. That is welfare 
prevention. Let us be perfectly honest about that. Many women are on 
welfare because they are the only ones supporting that child.
  Mr. Speaker, our bill goes at all sorts of things. It says the 
Federal Government should not allow passports to people who are behind 
in child support. It mandates that if you are behind in child support, 
it gets reported to the credit bureau so people know that. It also 
requires direct withholding by employers immediately, so it is 
automatic and that is the end of it. It also says that States should 
not allow licenses to people who are behind in child support orders.
  It is amazing how many professional people, such as doctors, are not 
paying their child support. Why? And States have hesitated to really go 
collect it because they think they will just make somebody mad and they 
just pass the bill on to the Federal Government.
  I really wish this child support enforcement had been in the Contract 
With America. I do not know why they did not put it in the Contract 
With America. To me it is one of the things that most Americans can 
agree on that it makes such sense. The Congresswoman have been working 
on this forever and ever and ever, and it is absolutely amazing how 
difficult it is to move this front and center and get a focus on it.
  If we are going to talk about family responsibility and we are going 
to talk about what families should be doing for young children, then I 
think we have to say that we have to use the laws of this land to make 
sure people take parenting very seriously. Very seriously.
  I am really pleased that this comprehensive child support bill will 
be going in. It will be going in today. I hope every American joins 
with the Congresswomen in saying this is what should be at the front of 
the session. This is what we should be doing in these first 100 days. 
In fact, we should have done it 100 years ago. And we ought to get this 
online. We ought to get the system up where all the States are 
participating and sharing information.
  In this great information era, it is absolutely amazing that people 
can cross State lines and avoid being picked up. No one else would 
tolerate that. I think it is long overdue that the children of this 
country have to tolerate that. Basically, they have had to tolerate it 
because they cannot vote, they are not that important, and if they are 
not that important a priority to this Government, then we allow it not 
to be an important priority to parents.
  Either we mean that parents have to be responsible or we do not mean 
it. I think any child would much prefer having a parent be responsible 
than having the taint of having to rely on welfare payments, but they 
may go to welfare payments rather than starve, obviously.
  When we look at the average welfare recipient, they are not happy 
about being a welfare recipient. They would much prefer this. But have 
you ever figured out what it costs to get a lawyer, what it costs to 
track people across State lines, what it costs to enforce these orders? 
That is why they go uncollected, because the States have not wanted to 
bother to do it, the Federal Government has kind of winked at it, and 
they have picked up the safety net that everyone fell into.
  I hope every American joins with us and says, ``Let's get this out. 
Let's get this out.'' We came very close to getting it out last year. 
Everybody talks a good game but somehow we never get it to the out box. 
If we make a massive effort, this is one way that we start saying 
parents become responsible for the children they bring into this world 
rather than the taxpayers become the parents of last resort. That is 
not a pretty picture for anyone and it just keeps generating the 
problems that we have seen in the past.
  I hope everyone joins us in cosponsoring the bill.
  Later on this week, I and a bipartisan group of Congresswomen will 
renew our efforts to make sure that the responsibility of fathers is 
not forgotten in the current welfare debate. Last Congress, the 
Congresswomen decided it was time for us to speak with one voice on 
child support enforcement. We want to hold children harmless in the 
economics of divorce.
  Thus, the Congresswomen will reintroduce the Child Support Amendments 
of 1995. This bill is an improved, revised version of the Child Support 
Responsibility Act of 1994 (H.R. 4570), which I introduced on behalf of 
the Congressional Caucus for Women's Issues last June.
  That bill, and the one we will be introducing this week, builds upon 
the 1992 recommendations of the U.S. Commission on Interstate Child 
Support. Its goal is to reduce the estimated $34 billion that deadbeat 
parents, mostly fathers, owe in child support. This bill puts teeth 
into the child support enforcement system so that money can be 
recovered and paid to the children whose economic well-being depends on 
these payments.
  Child support enforcement is a pressing issue in our Nation. A 
majority of Members readily agree that immediate action is needed to 
strengthen our present child support system. I believe that for many 
families, child support payments are in reality welfare prevention 
measures.
  In spite of a decade of congressional efforts to improve the 
collection of child support, deadbeat parents still fail to pay $34 
billion annually. Our child support system is quickly becoming a 
national disgrace. Each of us has heard from constituents who face dire 
consequences when a child support payment 
[[Page H893]] does not come. The primary victims of this system are the 
millions of children facing lives of poverty.
  Further complicating the present collection system is the rising 
number of parents who relocate to another State after their separation 
or divorce. Currently, almost one-third of child support cases involve 
parents who have moved to another State. The bottom line is that 
American children are being shortchanged by parents who fail to pay the 
support their children need. Our bill is a comprehensive measure which 
sends a clear message to deadbeat parents--whereever you are, you will 
no longer be able to renege on the financial responsibilities owed to 
your child.
  The Child Support Responsibility Act will tighten the child support 
enforcement program and close loopholes through which noncustodial 
parents are able to shirk their financial duty to their children.
  The central component of the Child Support Responsibility Act of 1995 
is the creation of a national databank that expands the Federal Parent 
Locator Service and establishes a Federal Child Support Registry. This 
new system will allow States to access the records in other State 
agencies and will allow for W-4 reporting of child support obligations 
so that we can get to the problem of parents who cross State lines to 
avoid paying child support. We do not want noncustodial parents playing 
economic hide-and-seek from their kids.
  Last session, the House passed four provisions of the Child Support 
Responsibility Act.
  We passed a bill that would significantly strengthen the Federal 
Government's child support enforcement mechanisms and, for the first 
time, individuals would have been prohibited from receiving Federal 
benefits or become employed by the Federal Government if their child 
support obligations are 3 months in arrears and they refuse to enter 
into a payment plan for the arrearage.
  We passed a bill that would restrict the passports of individuals 
with child support arrears exceeding $10,000. The Interstate Commission 
found that collecting child support payments internationally is 
extremely difficult. This provision would require noncustodial parents 
to pay up before they fly out.
  We passed a bill that improved the collection of child support 
payments owed by military personnel.
  And finally, we passed, and it became law, a bill that was 
incorporated into last year's bankruptcy reform law, that designated 
child-support payments as priority debts when an individual files for 
bankruptcy, making it more difficult to escape these obligations.
  These provisions, except for the ones signed into law, are in the new 
bill we will be introducing. Highlights of the new bill include:
  Establishes a Federal Child Support Registry for all child support 
orders issued or modified by any State court. The Federal registry is 
required to compare information on all W-4 forms with information in 
child support orders and notify State registries of child support 
obligations of employees.
  Expands the Parent Locator Service to provide for a national network 
which allows the States to access the records in other State agencies 
and Federal sources to locate information directly from one computer to 
another.
  Establishes State central registries for all child support orders 
issued or modified and the collection of obligations.
  Requires reconciliation of child support obligations and payments on 
income tax returns.
  Establishes a National Child Support Guidelines Commission to study 
the desirability of a national guideline for child support orders.
  Enhances paternity establishment procedures--requires State agencies 
responsible for maintaining birth records to offer voluntary paternity 
establishment services; creates a national paternity acknowledgement 
affidavit for the use of voluntary acknowledgement of paternity; and 
establishes that a signed paternity acknowledgement affidavit is 
conclusively presumed to prove paternity by creating a legal finding 
that has the effect of a final judgement at law.
  Mandates direct wage withholding of child support obligations by 
employers when child support orders are issued or modified by State 
courts.
  Creates a uniform child support order to be used in all cases in 
which income is to be withheld for the payment of child support.
  Requires States to adopt the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act 
[UIFSA].
  Restricts professional, occupational, and business licenses of 
noncustodial parents who have failed to pay child support.
  Retricts driver's licenses and vehicle registration of noncustodial 
parents who fail to appear in child support proceedings.
  Requires reporting of delinquent child support payments to credit 
bureaus.


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