[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 62 (Tuesday, May 7, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H4441]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   A REAL MOTHER'S DAY TRIBUTE; PASS CHILD SUPPORT ENFORCEMENT REFORM

  (Mrs. ROUKEMA asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Mrs. ROUKEMA. Mr. Speaker, Mother's Day is just a few short days 
away, and I have a great idea for the congressional leadership and 
President Clinton.
  For all the mothers of America, let us enact tough new child support 
enforcement reforms.
  Last year this Congress voted to give the States the tools and the 
teeth to enforce child support orders when it passed the welfare reform 
package. Unfortunately, the President vetoed that bill, and the child 
support reforms along with it, and since that time child support has 
been tangled in the larger welfare reform debate.
  Mr. Speaker, enough is enough. No more excuses, no more delays. The 
children are suffering. Let us pass this legislation now. No one 
expects the welfare reform dispute to be settled for months, if at all. 
Yet we all agree on a bipartisan basis on the reforms to strengthen our 
child support system.
  Child support evasion is a national disgrace. Each year millions of 
families are denied billions of dollars to which they are legally and 
morally entitled. First the children are the victims and, second, the 
taxpayers. Let us pass this legislation.

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