[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 49 (Wednesday, April 23, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3558-S3559]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Ms. SNOWE (for herself and Mr. Rockefeller):
  S. 639. A bill to require the same distribution of child support 
arrearages collected by Federal tax intercept as collected directly by 
the States, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Finance.


                  child support arrearages legislation

  Ms. SNOWE. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce a bill designed 
to rectify an inequity in child support law which will enable families 
to keep more of past-due support owed to them. I am extremely pleased 
that my colleague from West Virginia, Mr. Rockefeller, has joined me 
today in offering this bill, and that Representative Nancy Johnson is 
offering a companion bill in the House.
  Last year, my bill, the Child Support Improvement Act of 1996, was 
enacted into law as part of the Personal Responsibility and Work 
Opportunity Reconciliation Act (Welfare Reform Act). This bill 
contained comprehensive reforms to ensure that deadbeat parents could 
no longer renege on their responsibilities as parents to care for and 
support their children. It included provisions to dramatically improve 
States' ability to collect child support, particularly across State 
lines, and to take maximum advantage of computer technology in order to 
track down missing parents and ensure that child support gets paid 
promptly. It also will help increase the rate of paternity 
establishment, require the provision if health insurance coverage in 
child support orders, and improve the process for modifying support 
orders. In short, it promises to bring hope and financial stability to 
the millions of children and their single parents who depend on support 
from absent parents.
  I am introducing a bill today which will close one small loophole 
that remains outstanding. Prior to the enactment of the Welfare Reform 
Act last year, a State that collected child support arrearages for a 
family that had left welfare could choose to reimburse itself for 
welfare expenditures with the arrears that accrued before the during 
AFDC receipt, before it paid the family arrears that accrued after the 
family left AFDC. Two-thirds of States chose to pay themselves back for 
AFDC outlays before paying the family, leaving the family with little, 
if any, of the money that accrued after they left the rolls. The 
Welfare Act rightfully changes this to require States to first pay the 
family the arrears collected when the family was not on welfare, before 
it can reimburse itself for assistance outlays. This provision 
increases the likelihood of a family's success in leaving welfare by 
ensuring that the family receives more of the child support collected 
on its behalf.
  Unfortunately, a small provision inserted in conference creates an 
inequity for families, whereby arrears collected via a tax intercept 
(instead of wages garnished by the State) will not be affected by this 
change. It does not make sense that whether or not a family receives 
the funds depends on the method by which it is collected. This 
provision also rewards those States

[[Page S3559]]

which do little to collect child support but rely instead on the 
Federal tax system to intercept the funds. My bill corrects this 
inequity by imposing the same distribution scheme on arrears collected 
through the tax intercept as it does on arrears collected by the States 
directly. This will ensure that families receive more of the past-due 
support that is owed to them, helping them to remain economically 
independent and to stay off welfare. I urge my colleagues to support 
this bill, which not only promises to help families, but will further 
our goals of keeping families off of public assistance.
                                 ______