[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 19 (Tuesday, January 31, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H895]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                IMPROVE CHILD SUPPORT ENFORCEMENT SYSTEM

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 4, 1995, the gentlewoman from Connecticut [Mrs. Kennelly] is 
recognized during morning business for 2 minutes.
  Mrs. KENNELLY. Mr. Speaker, the streets of America, as the Halls of 
Congress, have been filled with calls for young mothers to be more 
responsible, not to have children when they cannot take the 
responsibility for those children, to certainly cooperate and establish 
the paternity of the child's father. We hear this and we agree with 
this, but we really want to know, particularly in the contract, where 
are the demands for fathers to be responsible?
  We must clearly say that both parents have an equal and unavoidable 
responsibility to provide for their children. The taxpayers want to 
provide for their own children, not for other people's children.
  We have to insist that we have both parents responsible, because if 
we do not collect child support, we will have more people on Aid to 
Families with Dependent Children rather than less people.
  Recently the chairman of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Human 
Resources, the gentleman from Florida, Mr. Clay Shaw, has come forth 
and said yes, we will take up the issue of child support enforcement. 
He was reacting to the strong suggestions by many people who have 
worked on this issue for years, particularly the Women's Caucus, to see 
that child support enforcement travels along with welfare reform and we 
look forward to seeing these provisions in print.
  But we have to be very careful we do not just say do a block grant 
for child support enforcement. The very strength of child support 
enforcement these last few years is having a Federal approach. The way 
in which a young father or father can get away from the 
responsibilities to his children is merely to move, go across State 
lines and then it is almost impossible, unless you have a Federal 
directive to be able to get the individual to pay their support 
responsibilities to their children.
  So I certainly hope child support enforcement travels along with 
welfare reform. I hope we can accomplish both, but to do this we must 
do it in the right way.
  We have had a National Commission on Child Support Enforcement that 
has come forward with some marvelous suggestions about interstate 
tracking of where the father is working. So I would suggest to the 
gentleman from Florida [Mr. Shaw] that he look at the Commission's 
recommendation about interstate child support enforcement. There are 
wonderful suggestions there. Suggestions that will work and have been 
put into bill form.
  The work has been done. Let us put it into law as we do child support 
enforcement along with welfare reform.


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