[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 86 (Thursday, June 19, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1273-E1274]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    COLORADO AND THE TENTH AMENDMENT

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. BOB SCHAFFER

                              of colorado

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 19, 1997

  Mr. BOB SCHAFFER of Colorado. Mr. Speaker, I rise today for the 
benefit of my colleagues and out of respect for the Colorado General 
Assembly, to enter Colorado House Joint Resolution 97-1027 into the 
Record. As the necessary and long-overdue process of welfare reform 
moves forward, I believe it is essential that Congress pay special 
attention to our State governments. Colorado House Joint Resolution 97-
1027 passed by a vote of 59 to 6 in the House and unanimously in the 
State Senate, and I believe my colleagues should consider the opinions 
expressed by the people of Colorado through the following resolution:

                     House Joint Resolution 97-1027

       By Representatives: McPherson, Adkins, George, Kaufman, 
     Pfiffner, T. Williams, Allen, Anderson, Arrington, G. Berry, 
     Clarke, Dean, Epps, Gotlieb, Keller, Lamborn, Lawrence, 
     Miller, Musgrave, Nichol, Paschall, Schwarz, Sinclair, Smith, 
     Sullivant, Swenson, Tool, Udall, and Young.
       Also Senators: Lacy, B. Alexander, Ament, Coffman, 
     Congrove, Schroeder, Arnold, Bishop, Blickensderfer, 
     Chlouber, Dennis, Duke, Feeley, Hernandez, Hopper, J. 
     Johnson, Martinez, Matsunaka, Mutzebaugh, Norton, Pascoe, 
     Perlmutter, Phillips, Powers, Reeves, Rizzuto, Rupert, 
     Tanner, Tebedo, Thiebaut, Wattenberg, Weddig, Wells, and 
     Wham.
       Whereas, The federal ``Personal Responsibility and Work 
     Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996'', Public Law 104-193, 
     herein referred to as the ``Act'', was passed by the United 
     States House of Representatives on July 18, 1996, and the 
     United States Senate on July 23, 1996, and signed into law by 
     President Clinton on August 22, 1996 and
       Whereas, Article III of such Act addresses the several 
     states obligation to provide child support enforcement 
     services and mandates that the state adopt certain procedures 
     for the location of an obligor and the establishment, 
     modification, and enforcement of a child support obligation 
     against such an obligor; and
       Whereas, The members of the Sixty-first General Assembly 
     recognize the importance of assuring financial support for 
     minor and dependent children; however, the General Assembly 
     finds that those procedures specified in the Act include such 
     far reaching measures as the following:
       (1) The necessity to implement the ``Uniform Interstate 
     Family Support Act'', as approved by the American Bar 
     Association and as amended by the National Conference of

[[Page E1274]]

     Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, which uniform act allows 
     for the direct registration of foreign support orders and the 
     activation of income-withholding procedures across state 
     lines without any prior verification, certification, or other 
     authentication that the child support order or the income-
     withholding form is accurate or valid and without a 
     requirement that notice of such withholding be provided to 
     the alleged obligor by any specified means or method, such as 
     by first-class mail or personal service, to assure that the 
     individual receives proper notice prior to the income 
     withholding;
       (2) Liens to arise by operation of law against real and 
     personal property for amounts of overdue support that are 
     owed by noncustodial parent who resides or owns property in 
     the state, without the ability to determine if a lien exists 
     on certain property;
       (3) The obligation of the state to accord full faith and 
     credit to such liens arising by operation of law in any other 
     state, which results in inadequate notice and the inability 
     of purchasers to have knowledge or notice of such liens;
       (4) A duty placed upon employers to report all newly hired 
     employees, whether or not the employee has a child support 
     obligation, to a state directory of new hires within a 
     restricted period after the employer hires the employee;
       (5) The requirement that social security numbers be 
     recorded when a person applies for a professional license, a 
     commercial driver's license, an occupational license, or a 
     marriage license, when a person is subject to a divorce 
     decree, a support order, or a paternity determination or 
     acknowledgment, or when an individual dies, whether or not 
     the person has an obligation to pay child support;
       (6) A requirement that the child support enforcement agency 
     enter into agreements with financial institutions doing 
     business in the state in order to develop, operate, and 
     coordinate an unprecedented and invasive data match system 
     for the sharing of account holder information with the child 
     support enforcement agency in order to facilitate the 
     potential matching of delinquent obligors and bank account 
     holders;
       (7) Procedures by which the state child support enforcement 
     agency may subpoena financial or other information needed to 
     establish, modify, or enforce a support order and to impose 
     penalties for failure to respond to such a subpoena and 
     procedures by which to access information contained in 
     certain records, including the records of public utilities 
     and cable television companies pursuant to an administrative 
     subpoena; and
       (8) Procedures interfering with the states' right to 
     determine when a jury trial is to be authorized; and
       Whereas, the Act mandates numerous, unnecessary 
     requirements upon the several states that epitomize the 
     continuing trend of intrusion by government into people's 
     personal lives; and
       Whereas, the Act offends the notion of notice and 
     opportunity to be heard guaranteed to the people by the Due 
     Process Clauses of the 5th and 14th Amendments to the 
     Constitution of the United States; and
       Whereas, the Act offends the 10th Amendment to the 
     Constitution of the United States, which provides that ``The 
     powers not delegated to the United States by the 
     Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are 
     reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.''; and
       Whereas, the United States Supreme Court has ruled in New 
     York v. United States, 112 S. Ct. 2408 (1992), that Congress 
     may not simply commandeer the legislative and regulatory 
     processes of the states; and
       Whereas, the Act imposes upon the several states further 
     insufficiently funded mandates in relation to the costly 
     development of procedures by which to implement the 
     requirements set forth in the Act in order to preserve the 
     receipt of federal funds under Title IV-D of the ``Social 
     Security Act'', as amended, and other provisions of the Act; 
     Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved by the House of Representatives of the House of 
     Representatives of the Sixty-first General Assembly of the 
     State of Colorado, the Senate concurring herein: That we, the 
     members of the Sixty-first General Assembly, urge the 
     Congress of the United States to amend or repeal those 
     specific provisions of the federal ``Personal Responsibility 
     and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996'' set forth 
     in this Resolution that place undue burden and expense upon 
     the several states, that violate provisions of the 
     Constitution of the United States, that impose insufficiently 
     funded mandates upon the states in the establishment, 
     modification, and enforcement of child support obligations, 
     or that unjustifiably intrude into the personal lives of the 
     law-abiding citizens of the United States of America. Be it 
     further
       Resolved That copies of this Resolution be sent to the 
     President of the United States, the Speaker of the United 
     States House of Representatives and the President of the 
     Senate of each state legislature, and Colorado's 
     Congressional delegation.
       Charles E. Berry, Speaker of the House of Represenatatives.
       Tom Norton, President of the Senate.
       Judith Rodrigue, Chief Clerk of the House of 
     Representatives.
       Joan M. Albi, Secretary of the Senate.

       

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