[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 130 (Friday, September 25, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H8720]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


  IN PRAISE OF THE PAYROLL PROFESSIONAL DURING NATIONAL PAYROLL WEEK 
                           (SEPTEMBER 14-18)

  (Mr. SHAW asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SHAW. Mr. Speaker, I would like to call attention to some of the 
unsung heroes in the child support enforcement process. The welfare 
reform bill we passed just 2 years ago took strong steps to ensure that 
all single parents receive child support payments. Providing child 
support officials with the tools they need to locate parents who owe 
child support was key to this effort.
  The most important tool was information employers were required to 
report on every person they hire. These new hire reports are used to 
locate parents anywhere in this country and then to establish an order 
or enforce an existing order.
  With new hire reporting, State child support enforcement agencies 
have the ability to issue income withholding orders much more quickly. 
None of this would be possible without the cooperation of employers, 
and specifically the payroll professionals who bear the major 
responsibility for this new hire reporting.
  Payroll professionals are also responsible for withholding wages from 
paychecks and sending the money to custodial parents and children. The 
funds they withhold from workers amounts to more than half of the $13 
billion in child support payments made nationally each year.
  Few public policies are more important than child support, and no 
group is more important in this issue than employers in general and 
payroll professionals in particular. I wholeheartedly commend them.

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