[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 76 (Friday, June 16, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5308-S5310]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS

      By Mr. L. CHAFFEE (for himself, Mr. Kohl, Mr. Graham, and Mrs. 
        Lincoln):
  S. 2747. A bill to expand the Federal tax refund intercept program to 
cover children who are not minors; to the Committee on Finance.


     CHILD SUPPORT FAIRNESS AND TAX REFUND INTERCEPTION ACT OF 2000

  Mr. L. CHAFEE. Mr. President, I am pleased to be joined today by 
Senators Kohl, Graham, and Lincoln in introducing the Child Support 
Fairness and Tax Refund Interception Act of 2000.
  The Child Support Fairness and Tax Refund Interception Act of 2000 
closes a loophole in current federal statute by expanding the 
eligibility of one of the most effective means of enforcing child 
support orders--that of intercepting the federal tax refunds of parents 
who are delinquent in paying their court-ordered financial support for 
their children.
  Under current law, eligibility for the federal tax refund offset 
program is limited to cases involving minors, parents on public 
assistance, or adult children who are disabled. Custodial parents of 
adult, non-disabled children are not assisted under the IRS tax refund 
intercept program, and in many cases, they must work multiple jobs in 
order to make ends meet. Some of these parents have gone into debt to 
put their college-age children through school.
  The legislation we are introducing today will address this inequity 
by expanding the eligibility of the federal tax refund offset program 
to cover parents of all children, regardless of whether the child is 
disabled or a minor. This legislation will not create a cause of action 
for a custodial parent to seek additional child support. It will merely 
assist the custodial parent in recovering debt that is owed for a level 
of child support that was determined by a court.
  Improving our child support enforcement programs is an issue that 
should be of concern to us all as it remains a serious problem in the 
United States. According to the most recent Government statistics, 
there are approximately twelve million active cases in which a child 
support order requires a noncustodial parent to contribute to the 
support of his or her child. Of the $13.7 billion owed in 1998, only 
$6.9 billion has been collected. It is important to note that this data 
does not include reporting from many states, including Callifornia, New 
York, Florida, and Illinois. In 1998, only 23 percent of children 
entitled to child support through our public system received some form 
of payment, despite Federal and State efforts. Similar shortfalls in 
previous years bring the combined delinquency total to approximately 
$47 billion. We can fix this injustice in our Federal tax refund offset 
program by helping some of our most needy constituents receive the 
financial assistance they are owed.
  While the administration has been somewhat successful in using tax 
refunds as a tool to collect child support payments, more needs to be 
done. The IRS tax refund interception program has only collected one-
third of tardy child support payments. The Child Support Fairness and 
Tax Refund Interception Act of 2000 will remove the current barrier to 
fulfilling an individual's obligation to pay child support, while 
helping to provide for the future of our Nation's children.
  I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this important 
legislation, and I ask unanimous consent that the legislation be 
printed in the Record.

                                S. 2747

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``Child Support Fairness and 
     Tax Refund Interception Act of 2000''.

     SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

       The Congress finds the following:

[[Page S5309]]

       (1) Enforcing child support orders remains a serious 
     problem in the United States. There are approximately 
     12,000,000 active cases in which a child support order 
     requires a noncustodial parent to contribute to the support 
     of his or her child. Of the $13,700,000,000 owed in calendar 
     year 1998 pursuant to such orders, $6,900,000,000, or 51 
     percent, has been collected. However, this data does not 
     include reporting from many States, including California, New 
     York, Florida, and Illinois. Similar shortfalls in past years 
     have brought the combined total of child support owed to 
     $47,400,000,000 by the end of fiscal year 1997.
       (2) It is an injustice for the Federal Government to issue 
     tax refunds to a deadbeat spouse while a custodial parent has 
     to work 2 or 3 jobs to account for the shortfall in providing 
     for their children.
       (3) The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) program to intercept 
     the tax refunds of parents who owe child support arrears has 
     been successful in collecting more than \1/3\ of such 
     arrears.
       (4) The Congress has periodically expanded eligibility for 
     the IRS tax refund intercept program. Initially, the program 
     was limited to intercepting Federal tax refunds owed to 
     parents on public assistance. In 1984, Congress expanded the 
     program to cover refunds owed to parents not on public 
     assistance. Finally, the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 
     1990 made the program permanent and expanded the program to 
     cover refunds owed to parents of adult children who are 
     disabled.
       (5) The injustice to the custodial parent is the same 
     regardless of whether the child is disabled, non-disabled, a 
     minor, or an adult, so long as the child support obligation 
     is provided for by a court or administrative order. It is 
     common for parents to help their adult children finance a 
     college education, a wedding, or a first home. Some parents 
     cannot afford to do that because they are recovering from 
     debt they incurred to cover expenses that would have been 
     covered if they had been paid the child support owed to them 
     in a timely manner.
       (6) This Act would address this injustice by expanding the 
     program to cover parents of all adult children, regardless of 
     whether the child is disabled.
       (7) This Act does not create a cause of action for a 
     custodial parent to seek additional child support. This Act 
     merely helps the custodial parent recover debt they are owed 
     for a level of child support that was set by a court after 
     both sides had the opportunity to present their arguments 
     about the proper amount of child support.

     SEC. 3. USE OF TAX REFUND INTERCEPT PROGRAM TO COLLECT PAST-
                   DUE CHILD SUPPORT ON BEHALF OF CHILDREN WHO ARE 
                   NOT MINORS.

       Section 464 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 664) is 
     amended--
       (1) in subsection (a)(2)(A), by striking ``(as that term is 
     defined for purposes of this paragraph under subsection 
     (c))''; and
       (2) in subsection (c)--
       (A) in paragraph (1)--
       (i) by striking ``(1) Except as provided in paragraph (2), 
     as used in'' and inserting ``In''; and
       (ii) by inserting ``(whether or not a minor)'' after ``a 
     child'' each place it appears; and
       (B) by striking paragraphs (2) and (3).

  Mr. KOHL. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce legislation, the 
Child Support Fairness and Tax Refund Interception Act, with my 
colleague from Rhode Island, Senator Chafee, as well as Senators Graham 
and Lincoln. This legislation is designed to increase child support 
collections across the country by allowing more parents to secure 
overdue support payments through the tax refund offset program.
  Child support enforcement is an issue that I care a great deal about. 
Every day, far too many children in this country go without the 
resources they need to learn and grow in healthy, nurturing 
environments. Working to improve the lives and futures of these 
children in need should count amount our highest priorities, and we can 
do just that by improving our system of child support enforcement.
  This legislation that we are introducing today proposes one such 
improvement by seeking to expand the use of an important enforcement 
tool. As my colleagues may know, under current law, custodial parents 
are eligible to use the tax refund offset program if their child 
support cases involve minors, adult disabled children, or parents on 
public assistance. The offset program has played a key role in securing 
overdue support payments. In fact, along with wage withholding, the 
offset program counts as one of the most effective tools that custodial 
parents owed support have at their disposal. For the 1998 tax year, the 
federal government collected a record $1.3 billion in overdue support 
through the tax offset program, an 18 percent increase over the 
previous year and a 99 percent increase since 1992. These collections 
yielded benefits to approximately 1.4 million families.
  Yet despite these admirable gains, under current law, the benefits of 
the tax refund offset program are not available to other custodial 
parents, those who have adult children, who are rightfully owed past-
due support. Our legislation would address this issue by allowing all 
parents who are owed overdue court-ordered support to be eligible for 
the offset program, regardless of whether their child is disabled or a 
minor. We believe that this straightforward change will both increase 
child support collections and help ease the burdens of many custodial 
parents. It will assist those parents who may have worked multiple jobs 
and struggled to provide for their children but who may still have 
difficulty recovering child support debt owed to them without the 
assistance of the offset program.
  Our Nation's unacceptably low rate of child support enforcement is a 
national crisis. Our public system collects only 23 percent of its 
caseload, and over $47 billion in overdue support is owed to our 
nation's children. Clearly, we must do all we can to address this very 
serious problem.
  I urge my colleagues to join with Senators Chafee, Graham, Lincoln, 
and myself is supporting this important legislation. It will expand one 
effective tool in the enforcement arsenal and help increase the 
resources available to families in need.
                                 ______
                                 
      By Mr. MACK (for himself and Mr. Torricelli):
  S. 2748. A bill to prohibit the rescheduling or forgiveness of any 
outstanding bilateral debt owed to the United States by the Government 
of the Russian Federation until the President certifies to the Congress 
that the Government of the Russian Federation has ceased all its 
operations at, removed all personnel from, and permanently closed the 
intelligence facility at Lourdes, Cuba.


         THE RUSSIAN-AMERICAN TRUST AND COOPERATION ACT OF 2000

 Mr. MACK. Mr. President, I rise today to offer a common sense 
piece of legislation that would prohibit the rescheduling or 
forgiveness of any outstanding bilateral debt owed to the United States 
by the Government of the Russian Federation until the President of the 
United States certifies to the Congress that Russia has ceased all 
operations and permanently closed its intelligence facility at Lourdes, 
Cuba. Currently the Government of the Russian Federation maintains a 
signals intelligence facility in Lourdes, Cuba from which it conducts 
intelligence activities directed against the United States. The 
Secretary of Defense has reported that the Russian Federation leases 
the Lourdes facility for an estimated $100 to $300 million every year. 
This is several hundred million dollars flowing to support a brutal 
tyrant for the purpose of supporting espionage.
  Mr. President, the United States should prohibit debt rescheduling 
and forgiveness for a country that is conducting espionage activities 
against America, while infusing Castro's despotic government with 
between $100 million and $300 million per year.
  I am pleased to have my colleague from New Jersey as a cosponsor of 
this legislation and I look forward to working with my colleagues to 
quickly pass this important bill. Mr. President, I ask unanimous 
consent that a copy of the bill be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the bill was ordered to be printed in the 
Record, as follows:

                                S. 2748

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``Russian-American Trust and 
     Cooperation Act of 2000''.

     SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

       The Congress makes the following findings:
       (1) The Government of the Russian Federation maintains an 
     agreement with the Government of Cuba which allows Russia to 
     operate an intelligence facility at Lourdes, Cuba.
       (2) The Secretary of Defense has formally expressed 
     concerns to the Congress regarding the espionage complex at 
     Lourdes, Cuba, and its use as a base for intelligence 
     activities directed against the United States.
       (3) The Secretary of Defense, referring to a 1998 Defense 
     Intelligence Agency assessment, has reported that the Russian 
     Federation leases the Lourdes facility for an estimated 
     $100,000,000 to $300,000,000 a year.
       (4) It has been reported that the Lourdes facility is the 
     largest such complex operated by the Russian Federation and 
     its intelligence service outside the region of the former 
     Soviet Union.

[[Page S5310]]

       (5) The Lourdes facility is reported to cover a 28 square-
     mile area with over 1,500 Russian engineers, technicians, and 
     military personnel working at the base.
       (6) Experts familiar with the Lourdes facility have 
     reportedly confirmed that the base has multiple groups of 
     tracking dishes and its own satellite system, with some 
     groups used to intercept telephone calls, faxes, and computer 
     communications, in general, and with other groups used to 
     cover targeted telephones and devices.
       (7) News sources have reported that the predecessor regime 
     to the Government of the Russian Federation had obtained 
     sensitive information about United States military operations 
     during Operation Desert Storm through the Lourdes facility.
       (8) Academic studies assessing the threat the Lourdes 
     espionage station poses to the United States cite official 
     United States sources affirming that the Lourdes facility is 
     being used to collect personal information about United 
     States citizens in the private and government sectors, and 
     offers the means to engage in cyberwarfare against the United 
     States.
       (9) It has been reported that the operational significance 
     of the Lourdes facility has grown dramatically since February 
     7, 1996, when then Russian President, Boris Yeltsin, issued 
     an order demanding that the Russian intelligence community 
     increase its gathering of United States and other Western 
     economic and trade secrets.
       (10) It has been reported that the Government of the 
     Russian Federation is estimated to have spent in excess of 
     $3,000,000,000 in the operation and modernization of the 
     Lourdes facility.
       (11) Former United States Government officials have been 
     quoted confirming reports about the Russian Federation's 
     expansion and upgrade of the Lourdes facility.
       (12) It was reported in December 1999 that a high-ranking 
     Russian military delegation headed by Deputy Chief of the 
     General Staff Colonel-General Valentin Korabelnikov visited 
     Cuba to discuss the continuing Russian operation of the 
     Lourdes facility.

     SEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON BILATERAL DEBT RESCHEDULING AND 
                   FORGIVENESS FOR THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION.

       (a) Prohibition.--Notwithstanding any other provision of 
     law, the President--
       (1) shall not reschedule or forgive any outstanding 
     bilateral debt owed to the United States by the Government of 
     the Russian Federation, and
       (2) shall instruct the United States representative to the 
     Paris Club of official creditors to use the voice and vote of 
     the United States to oppose rescheduling or forgiveness of 
     any outstanding bilateral debt owed by the Government of the 
     Russian Federation,

     until the President certifies to the Congress that the 
     Government of the Russian Federation has ceased all its 
     operations at, removed all personnel from, and permanently 
     closed the intelligence facility at Lourdes, Cuba.
       (b) Waiver.--
       (1) In general.--The President may waive the application of 
     subsection (a)(1) if, not less than 10 days before the waiver 
     is to take effect, the President determines and certifies in 
     writing to the Committee on International Relations of the 
     House of Representatives and the Committee on Foreign 
     Relations of the Senate that such waiver is necessary to the 
     national interests of the United States.
       (2) Additional requirement.--If the President waives the 
     application of subsection (a)(1) pursuant to paragraph (1), 
     the President shall include in the written certification 
     under paragraph (1) a detailed description of the facts that 
     support the determination to waive the application of 
     subsection (a)(1).
       (3) Submission in Classified Form.--If the President 
     considers it appropriate, the written certification under 
     paragraph (1), or appropriate parts thereof, may be submitted 
     in classified form.
       (c) Periodic Reports.--The President shall, every 180 days 
     after the transmission of the written certification under 
     subsection (b)(1), prepare and transmit to the Committee on 
     International Relations of the House of Representatives and 
     the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate a report 
     that contains a description of the extent to which the 
     requirements of subparagraphs (A) and (B) of subsection 
     (b)(1) are being met.

     SEC. 4. REPORT ON THE CLOSING OF THE INTELLIGENCE FACILITY AT 
                   LOURDES, CUBA.

       Not later than 30 days after the date of the enactment of 
     this Act, and every 120 days thereafter until the President 
     makes a certification under section 3, the President shall 
     submit to the Committee on International Relations and the 
     Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence of the House of 
     Representatives and the Committee on Foreign Relations and 
     the Select Committee on Intelligence of the Senate a report 
     (with a classified annex) detailing--
       (1) the actions taken by the Government of the Russian 
     Federation to terminate its presence and activities at the 
     intelligence facility at Lourdes, Cuba; and
       (2) the efforts by each appropriate Federal department or 
     agency to verify the actions described in paragraph 
     (1).

                          ____________________