[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 72 (Friday, June 5, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Page S5734]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                DEADBEAT PARENTS PUNISHMENT ACT OF 1998

  Mr. LOTT. I ask unanimous consent the Senate proceed to consideration 
of Calendar No. 369, H.R. 3811.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.
  The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:

       A bill (H.R. 3811) to establish felony violations for the 
     failure to pay legal child support obligations, and for other 
     purposes.

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection to the immediate 
consideration of the bill?
  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the bill.
  Mr. DeWINE. Mr. President, I rise today in support of final passage 
of the Deadbeat Parents Punishment Act authored by my distinguished 
colleague, Senator Herb Kohl from Wisconsin. Senator Kohl has worked 
tirelessly to strengthen our child support laws, and I have been happy 
to lend my support to this effort.
  The House bill we pass today mirrors the Senate-passed version that 
we sponsored earlier this session. I believe children should not have 
to suffer twice for the decisions of their parents to divorce; once 
when they decide to divorce, and again when one of the parents evades 
the financial responsibility to care for them.
  Let me tell you just one story from my home state of Ohio. Marcia 
Walsh, the mother of seven children, became one of the working poor 
when she and her husband divorced, and he neglected his child support 
order. He left Ohio, leaving Marcia to support seven children, ages 6 
to 15, on food stamps and a $14,000-a-year night job. When Marcia 
turned to our federal Child Enforcement Program, she discovered a 
failed program whose collection rate is only about 19.4 percent.
  Mr. President, people like Marcia and her children deserve better 
than that.
  Our bill will help address situations like theirs, in two ways. 
First, the Deadbeat Parents Punishment Act gives federal law 
enforcement an incentive to bring more of these cases against deadbeats 
by making this offense a felony. Second, this legislation would make 
movement from state to state to avoid child support payments a crime. 
Today, nonpayment of child support is a class B misdemeanor, and the 
Federal Bureau of Investigation is frustrated at having to chase 
deadbeats for just a class B misdemeanor. Federal prosecutors are 
equally discouraged about trying misdemeanor cases.
  It is currently not a crime to move to another state to avoid having 
to pay child support. Under this bill, not paying child support for two 
years, owing more than $10,000 in back child support, or going to 
another state to avoid child support payments would be penalized by a 
fine or two years in jail, or both. If the parent flees the state where 
the child resides, and owes more than $5,000, the same penalty 
described above would apply.
  Mr. President, making sure parents live up to their financial 
responsibilities for their children is a very important national 
priority. We have serious laws in this country protecting life and 
property--it's highly appropriate that we protect with equal 
seriousness the interests of our most precious national resource, 
America's children.
  I thank Senator Kohl for his work on this important bill.
  Mr. KOHL. Mr. President, I rise today to express my support for the 
final passage of our Deadbeat Parents Punishment Act and to commend 
Senator DeWine, cosponsor of the Senate version which we passed last 
November, along with Chairman Hyde and Congressman Hoyer for their 
commitment to promoting the welfare of children and to strengthening 
our child support laws. In sum, this measure sends a clear message to 
the deadbeat parents of America: pay up or go to jail.
  Mr. President, when the original Child Support Recovery Act of 1990 
was first enacted, Senator Shelby and I hoped to make a real impact on 
the non-payment of support orders. And we did make some progress. Over 
200 more cases of nonpayment were prosecuted. Over 50 went to jail. Of 
the 150-some remaining cases, many were dropped when the defendant 
agreed to pay the support arrears. And some very high profile cases 
prosecuted under this law have also made some potential deadbeats think 
twice before not paying. But for some deadbeats the threat of a 
misdemeanor sentence still isn't enough to keep them paying. Many would 
rather ``risk it.'' They know that if they get caught for a first 
offense--no matter how big their debt and no matter how long they went 
without paying--they aren't facing a felony conviction.
  Now, Mr. President, we are not trying to throw people into jail. We'd 
rather they paid their child support on time and in full. And many 
parents--mothers and fathers--do just that. But some need a little 
extra incentive to fulfill their responsibilities. The threat of a year 
in prison and a felony conviction on their records, contained in this 
bill, provides that much needed incentive.
  It has been estimated that if delinquent parents fully paid up their 
child support, approximately 800,000 women and children could be taken 
off the welfare rolls. In fact, Mr. President, since our original 
legislation was signed into law in 1992, collections have increased by 
nearly 50 percent, from $8 billion to $11.8 billion. Moreover, a new 
national database has helped identify 60,000 delinquent fathers--over 
half of whom owed money to women on welfare.
  Although we should be proud of these efforts, they are merely a point 
of departure, not a final destination, It seems to me that in passing 
this legislation, we all recognize that we can not simply stop and rest 
on our laurels. We must continue to work on behalf of children and 
families. We must give police and prosecutors the tools they need to 
make a real impact on the non-payment of child support. And today, we 
have taken that next step, we have done these things, and we have 
continued this important work. I look forward to the President's 
signing this bill into law, which will help ensure that deadbeats 
across the country sign more child support checks.
  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I would like to notify the Senate that this 
is the bill that is commonly referred to as the Deadbeat Parents 
Punishment Act, and I appreciate the cooperation that we received on 
both sides of the aisle today to get this legislation through, because 
it is clearly something that should be passed. We should have felony 
violations for failure to pay legal child support obligations. I am 
glad to move the legislation.
  I ask unanimous consent the bill be considered read a third time and 
passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and any 
statements relating to the bill be printed at the appropriate place in 
the Record.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The bill (H.R. 3811) was ordered to a third reading, was read the 
third time, and passed.




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