[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 21 (Thursday, February 2, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H1145]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 SUPPORT THE CHILD RESPONSIBILITY ACT, MAKING BOTH PARENTS RESPONSIBLE 
                           FOR CHILD SUPPORT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. LaHood). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Olver] is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. OLVER. Mr. Speaker, I, too, rise tonight to speak about that 
critical aspect of the welfare reform that is overlooked by the 
Contract With America. I'm talking about child support.
  The contract spells out the exact punishments for women on AFDC. 
Women under 18 will be ineligible for assistance if they have a child 
out of wedlock. Women will not receive additional benefits if they have 
another child while on welfare. Women will be forced off welfare after 
2 years, whether or not they have found employment or completed a 
training program.
  Is this a personal responsibility act, or a female punishment act? 
Not once is the responsibility of the father mentioned in the contract. 
In fact, the only mention of fathers denies public assistance to the 
child if paternity is not established. That is an astonishing 
oversight.
  Today, as the gentlewoman from Connecticut [Ms. DeLauro], has already 
pointed out, 63 percent of absent parents contribute no child support. 
Out of the $48 billion which should be paid annually only $14 billion 
is actually collected. Millions of families could escape welfare if 
only they received the owed child support.
  The child support enforcement system in my State of Massachusetts is 
a model for successful collection. In the 1980's, then Governor Dukakis 
made child support payments a top priority. Governor Weld built on that 
foundation the toughest, most streamlined child support collection 
system in the country.
  Massachusetts has been able to effectively garnish the wages, bank 
accounts, unemployment claims, and the lottery winnings of child 
support avoiders. In the last 6 months, these new laws have helped 
4,000 families escape AFDC and saved Massachusetts $38.5 million.
  The Massachusetts system is effective because it is centralized and 
unempliclated. Only one office deals with child support payments, and 
there are no forms to fill out. But this system works best if the 
noncustodial parent lives and works within the Massachusetts border. If 
the parent has crossed State lines, the support order is unlikely to be 
paid.
  We need a national system of child support. We need more cooperation 
and coordination between States. We need to create a national registry 
of child support orders.
  Tougher child support enforcement is a concrete way to achieve 
personal responsibility of fathers for the children they conceive. 
Under the contract, fathers remain totally unaccountable, while mothers 
must sacrifice and are subjected to sometimes harsh reforms.
  This is a clear double standard that I urge my colleagues in this 
Congress to rectify. Our support of the Child Responsibility Act would 
show that we believe both mothers and fathers should be held 
responsible for the economic well-being of their children.


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