[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]


                             CHILD SUPPORT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 4, 1995, the gentlewoman from California [Ms. Woolsey] is 
recognized during morning business for 2 minutes.
  Ms. WOOLSEY. Mr. Speaker, each year, over $5 billion in child support 
goes uncollected. This is a national disgrace that is punishing our 
children and bankrupting our welfare system.
  Mr. Speaker, I know personally just how important child support is 
because, in 1968, I was a single, working mother who never received a 
penny in child support. In order to provide my children with the health 
care and child care they needed, even though I was employed, I was 
forced to go on welfare to supplement my wages. Today, millions of 
American families rely on welfare for exactly the same reason.
  Mr. Speaker, currently, almost 1,500 State and local agencies are 
charged with collecting child support. Consequently, less than $1 for 
every $10 owed in interstate child support is collected.
  A comprehensive welfare reform plan must recognize that the failure 
to collect child support is not a State-by-State problem, it is a 
national crisis demanding a national solution.
  Mr. Speaker, let us make sure that families--families like mine--are 
not forced to go on welfare because they have not been given the child 
support they need and deserve.
  We must insist that child support be front and center in the welfare 
reform debate.

                          ____________________