Congressional Record, Volume 146 Issue 77 (Monday, June 19, 2000)

[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 77 (Monday, June 19, 2000)]
[House]
[Pages H4605-H4610]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

SENSE OF THE HOUSE REGARDING RESPONSIBLE FATHERHOOD

Mr. SOUDER. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to
the resolution (H. Res. 522) expressing the sense of the House of
Representatives regarding the importance of responsible fatherhood.
The Clerk read as follows:

H. Res. 522

Whereas studies reveal that even in high-crime, inner-city
neighborhoods, well over 90 percent of children from safe,
stable, two-parent homes do not become delinquents;
Whereas in 1998, 1.2 million babies, or 33 percent of all
newborns, were born out of wedlock;
Whereas children with fathers at home tend to do better in
school, are less prone to depression, and have more
successful relationships;
Whereas premature infants whose fathers spend ample time
playing with them have better cognitive outcomes and children
who have higher-than-average self-esteem and lower-than-
average depression report having a close relationship with
their father;
Whereas both boys and girls demonstrate a greater ability
to take initiative and evidence self-control when they are
reared with fathers who are actively involved in their
upbringing;
Whereas although mothers often work tremendously hard to
rear their children in a nurturing environment, a mother can
benefit from the positive support of a father for her
children;
Whereas it is recognized that to promote responsible
fatherhood is in no way meant to denigrate the standing or
parenting of single mothers, but rather to increase the
chances that children will have two caring parents to help
them grow up healthy and secure;
Whereas a broad array of America's leading family and child
development experts agree that it is in the best interests of
children and the nation as a whole to encourage more two-
parent, father involved families;
Whereas, according to a 1996 Gallup Poll, 79.1 percent of
Americans believe the most significant family or social
problem facing America is the physical absence of the father
from the home and the resulting lack of involvement of
fathers in the rearing and development of their children;
Whereas, according to the Bureau of the Census, in 1996,
16,993,000 children in the United States (one-fourth of all
children in the United States) lived in families in which a
father was absent;
Whereas, according to a 1996 Gallup Poll, 90.9 percent of
Americans believe ``it is important for children to live in a
home with both their mother and their father'';
Whereas it is estimated that half of all United States
children born today will spend at least half their childhood
in a family in which a father figure is absent;
Whereas the United States is now the world's leader in
fatherless families, according to the United States Bureau of
the Census;
Whereas estimates of the likelihood that marriages will end
in divorce range from 40 percent to 50 percent, and
approximately 3 out of every 5 divorcing couples have at
least one child;
Whereas almost half of all 11- through 16-year-old children
who live in mother-headed homes have not seen their father in
the last 12 months;
Whereas the likelihood that a young male will engage in
criminal activity doubles if he is reared without a father
and triples if he lives in a neighborhood with a high
concentration of single-parent families;
Whereas a study of juveniles in state reform institutions
found that 70 percent grew up in single or no parent
situations;
Whereas children of single-parents are less likely to
complete high school and more likely to have low earnings and
low employment stability as adults than children reared in
two-parent families;
Whereas a 1990 Los Angeles Times poll found that 57 percent
of all fathers and 55 percent of all mothers feel guilty
about not spending enough time with their children;
Whereas almost 20 percent of 6th through 12th graders
report that they have not had a good conversation lasting for
at least 10 minutes with at least one of their parents in
more than a month;
Whereas, according to a Gallup poll, over 50 percent of all
adults agreed that fathers today spend less time with their
children than their fathers spent with them;
Whereas President Clinton has stated that ``the single
biggest social problem in our society may be the growing
absence of fathers from their children's homes because it
contributes to so many other social problems'' and that ``the
real source of the [welfare] problem is the inordinate number
of out of wedlock births in this country'';
Whereas the Congressional Task Force on Fatherhood
Promotion and the Senate Task Force on Fatherhood Promotion
were both formed in 1997, and the Governors Fatherhood Task
Force was formed in February 1998, and the Mayors Task Force
was formed in June 1999;

[[Page H4606]]

Whereas a growing number of community-based organizations
are implementing outreach support and skills building
programs for fathers;
Whereas a disproportionate amount of Federal dollars are
spent on crime, a social symptom, as compared to addressing
the principal underlying cause of crime: an increasing
absence of fathers from the home;
Whereas the Congressional Task Force on Fatherhood
Promotion is exploring the social changes that are required
to ensure that every child is reared with a father who is
committed to being actively involved in the rearing and
development of his children;
Whereas the National Fatherhood Initiative holds an annual
National Summit on Fatherhood in Washington, D.C., with the
purpose of mobilizing a response to father absence in several
of the most powerful sectors of society, including public
policy, public and private social services, education,
religion, entertainment, the media, and the civic community;
and
Whereas the promotion of fatherhood is a bipartisan issue:
Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(1) recognizes that the creation of a better America
depends in large part on the active involvement of fathers in
the rearing and development of their children;
(2) urges each father in America to accept his full share
of responsibility for the lives of his children, to be
actively involved in rearing his children, and to encourage
the academic, moral, and spiritual development of his
children;
(3) urges governments and institutions at every level to
remove barriers to father involvement and enact public
policies that encourage and support the efforts of fathers
who want to become more engaged in the lives of their
children;
(4) encourages each father to devote time, energy, and
resources to his children, recognizing that children need not
only material support, but more importantly a secure,
nurturing, family environment; and
(5) expresses its support for the National Fatherhood
Initiative, and its work to inspire and equip fathers to be
positively involved in the raising and development of their
children.

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Indiana (Mr. Souder) and the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Wu) each will
control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Souder).

General Leave

Mr. SOUDER. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members
may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their
remarks on H. Res. 522.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Indiana?
There was no objection.
Mr. SOUDER. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, first I want to thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania
(Mr. Pitts) for his leadership on this issue. It is no secret that
children who have fathers in the home tend to do better in school, have
more success in relationships, and get into less trouble. I would like
also to publicly thank for making our country more aware of this Dr.
Wade Horn of the National Fatherhood Institute as well as Dr. David
Blankenhorn for their years of leadership on this issue.
Although mothers often work tremendously hard to rear their children
in a nurturing environment, a mother can benefit from the positive
support of the father of her children. A broad array of America's
leading family and child development experts agree that it is in the
best interests of children and the Nation as a whole to encourage more
two-parent, father-involved families.
According to a 1996 Gallup Poll, 79.1 percent of Americans believed
that the most significant family or social problem facing America is
the physical absence of the father in the home and the resulting lack
of involvement of fathers in the rearing and development of their
children. According to the Bureau of the Census in 1996, 16,993,000
children in the United States, one-fourth of all the children in the
United States, lived in families in which a father was absent.
The United States is now the world's leader in fatherless families
according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and the likelihood that a young
male will engage in criminal activity doubles if he is reared without a
father and triples if he lives in a neighborhood with a high
concentration of single-parent families.
According to a Gallup Poll, over 50 percent of all adults agreed that
fathers today spend less time with their children than their fathers
spent with them. It is not just a problem of fathers who are not ever
there but fathers who nominally live in the home and do not spend time
with their children.
President Clinton has stated that ``the single biggest social problem
in our society may be the growing absence of fathers from their
children's homes because it contributes to so many other social
problems.'' President Clinton continued, ``The real source of the
welfare problem is the inordinate number of out-of-wedlock births in
this country.''
A growing number of community-based organizations are implementing
outreach support and skills-building programs for fathers. I have
personally worked with many of these. We recognize that the creation of
a better America depends in large part on the active involvement of
fathers in the rearing and development of their children.
As supporters of this resolution, we urge each father in America to
accept his full share of responsibility for the lives of his children,
to be actively involved in the rearing of his children, and to
encourage the academic, moral and spiritual development of those
children.
Some argue that nothing can be done, but Governor Frank Keating in
Oklahoma has an excellent plan through his human services division
leader, Jerry Regire, that illustrates exactly what can be done at the
State level and some at the Federal level.
Madam Speaker, at the end of my remarks I will include for the Record
an article that appeared in yesterday's Washington Post by Barbara
Dafoe Whitehead.
I would like to just quote at this time a few things from this
excellent article. Barbara Dafoe Whitehead has been a leader in efforts
to encourage father involvement for at least 15 years. When I first was
Republican staff director at the Children Family Committee here in
Congress, she worked with us as we tried to raise this issue as we saw
the problem exploding in our country.
Her column starts:

Take a look at the Father's Day cards in any neighborhood
drug store. There alongside the classic greetings for fathers
and stepfathers are cards aimed at the alternative dads. For
the last few years there have been cards for children to send
to their fathers who don't live with them. They carry
sentiments like this one: ``I miss you more than ever, Daddy,
now that it's Father's Day and even though I'm too far away
to hug you with my arms, I just want you to know I'll be
hugging you in my heart.''

``This year at my CVS,'' Barbara Dafoe Whitehead continued,

There are two new sections of Father's Day cards. One is
under a sign reading ``Like a Father.'' The cards feature
such messages as: ``Just wanted to thank you for all the ways
you've been a daddy.'' The second section, poignantly labeled
``Anybody,'' contains greetings aimed at a generic good guy,
including one Father's Day message for the Good Man who
spreads happiness everywhere he goes. These cards suggest
that Father's Day might be morphing into Positive Male Role
Model Day. There's even a positive male role model card for
Mom, a woman who's done all the things that a father usually
does.
You don't find a parallel range in Mother's Day cards.

She concludes this excellent article by saying:

As marriage has faded, fatherhood has split along the seam
between biology and sociology. But more than anything else,

She concludes:

This project of trying to cobble together one father from
several kinds of daddies is contrary to what kids want and
need. Anyone who raises children knows that they are natural
social conservatives. They like order, except perhaps in
their bedrooms, stability, constancy, permanence and the
security of having fathers worry about them rather than
having the reverse responsibility of worrying about their
father. And as much as they may benefit from and enjoy their
relationships with other male role models, they aren't likely
to confuse coaches or mentors with the real dad. Retrograde
as it may sound, most kids still want one father who fulfills
multiple roles all the time rather than several fathers who
fulfill a few of the

[[Page H4607]]

roles some of the time. But today too many kids have to
content themselves with the kind of fatherhood that is as
paper thin as a sentiment on a Father's Day greeting card.

[From the Washington Post, June 18, 2000]

Close, But No Cigar

(By Barbara Dafoe Whitehead)

A couple of months ago, amid the Elian Gonzalez
controversy, U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno issued a
remarkable statement on the nature of fatherhood. The United
States, she told a news conference, is a nation ``whose law
and whose very moral foundation recognize that there is a
bond, a special, wonderful sacred bond between father and
son. . . .''
A tender sentiment? Sure. A true description? Hardly.
Reno's statement is remarkable chiefly because of how
thoroughly at odds it is with fatherhood as we now know it.
America no longer has a ``special'' model of fatherhood--
let alone one buttressed by legal, moral and religious
opinion. In a well-intentioned effort to make up for
vanishing fathers and disintegrating families, and to give
support to the legions of foster fathers and stepfathers and
mentors and Big Brothers and role models out there. American
law and civil society have diluted the concept of fatherhood
until it is almost unrecognizable. What began as a
conscientious response to a crisis is hardening into
something like the new status quo. We once saw sometime,
part-time or once-upon-a-time fathers as inadequate
substitutes for a full-fledged father; now we are selling
ourselves on the idea that they are all kids really want or
need.
Unfortunately, while fatherhood has changed, childhood has
not. Children still need love, protection, security and,
perhaps most of all, stability in their lives. Many of the
new varieties of fatherhood don't give that to kids. They're
too geographically remote, too emotionally distant, too
legally fuzzy or circumscribed, or too fleeting to do so.
No one would dream of trying to convince children that
their mother could be replaced by several different kinds of
mothers, all playing different roles at different times in
their lives. But that is exactly what we are communicating to
the many children whose fathers are absent, distant or
unknown.
Take a look at the Father's Day cards in any neighborhood
drugstore. There, alongside the classic greetings for fathers
and stepfathers, are cards aimed at the alternative dads. For
the last few years there have been cards for children to send
to fathers who don't live with them. They carry sentiments
like this one: I miss you more than ever Daddy, now that it's
Father's Day/and even though I'm too far away to hug you with
my arms, I just want you to know I'll be hugging you in my
heart.
This year, at my local CVS, there are two new sections of
Father's Day cards. One is under a sign reading ``Like a
Father.'' The cards feather such messages as: Just want to
thank you for all the ways you've been a daddy. The second
section, poignantly labeled ``Anybody,'' contains greetings
aimed at a generic good guy, including one Father's Day
message for the Good Man who spreads happiness everywhere he
goes. These cards suggest that Father's Day might be morphing
into Positive Male Role Model Day. There's even a Positive
Male Role Model card for Mom, A woman who's done all the
things a father usually does.
You don't find a parallel range of Mother's Day greetings.
Despite all the dramatic changes in women's lives over recent
decades, little has occurred to shake what Janet Reno might
call the moral and legal foundations of motherhood.
Consider how different the Elian case would have been if it
had been the boy's father who had died, and his mother who
wanted him back. Few would have questioned the mother's right
to her shipwrecked son. To state what is painfully apparent
to many children today, the bond to a mother is rock solid,
but the bond to a father isn't.
Although both motherhood and fatherhood have both
biological and sociological dimensions, these dimensions are
virtually fused in motherhood, especially during a child's
early years. To an infant, a mother's body is both life and
food, nature and nurture. This isn't true of fatherhood.
Biologically, a father is a one-minute parent. (Consider
sperm donors.) Indeed, a man can become a father and be
the last to know, sometimes years after the fact.
What's more, his biological contribution does not naturally
dictate his sociological role. Sociological fatherhood is a
lot like being a designated driver. Men can choose to take on
the role and the effort it involves, either through the
institution of marriage or through other kinds of ties to the
mother and her family--and they can also choose not to.
Because of this more tenuous connection, fatherhood is
universally problematic. All societies face the challenge of
connecting biological and sociological fatherhood in some
fashion in order to make sure children are protected and
supported over time.
Within living memory, of course, there was a single
prevailing model of fatherhood in America. In it, a father
was connected to his children by three ties. The first was
blood, or its legal equivalent, adoption. The second was a
shared household with the mother of his biological or adopted
children. The third was marriage to the mother of these
children. In this model, marriage was the most important of
the three because it bound the other two ties together.
With the new dads, one or more--or even all--of these ties
may be missing. For example, some men have a blood tie to
their children but have never had a residential, marital, or
any other meaningful tie to them. Others have a blood tie to
their children but are divorced from the mother and no longer
share the children's primary residence. Still others are
married stepfathers who live with their wife and her
biological children, voluntarily contribute to supporting and
raising the children but have no blood tie to them. A fast-
growing father group includes cohabiting men who live with
the children but are not married to their mother; some have
blood ties to the kids but others are ``stepfathers'' who are
unrelated. And then there are the exes--ex-stepfathers, ex-
foster dads or ex-boyfriends--who have no biological or legal
tie to the children but once played some kind of father role
in their lives. There are also the father figures--mentors,
Big Brothers, coaches, clergy--who have no biological, legal,
marital or residential tie to the children.
This tangle of father types creates all kinds of problems
over nomenclature--what do you call the man who lived with
your mother for a while and still comes by now and then to
take you to ballgames?--which probably explains why
``Anybody'' is a growing niche is greeting card market.
As marriage has faded, fatherhood has split along the seam
between biology and sociology. For example, the state defines
the biological male parent as the father, and if paternity is
established--either voluntarily by signing a birth
certificate or involuntarily with a DNA test--he can be
compelled to support his child. Other forms of paternal
support and contact may be desirable, even encouraged, but
nowhere does the state require a biological father to do
anything more than enter into a financial arrangement. This
is an essential but breathtakingly minimalist model of
fatherhood. It defines daddy down to a name on a birth
certificate and a signature on a child-support check.
Other segments of the society, from families to churches to
child advocates, define fatherhood functionally as the
provision of constancy, caring and affection. Men other than
a biological father--stepfathers, co-habiting fathers,
unrelated cohabiting partners, neighbors and male relatives
and friends--can play the role of the social father. So can
male mentors who are not romantically involved with the
child's mother but volunteer for the role of social father
out of the goodness of their hearts.
In a best-case scenario, you can patch together both kinds
of father and come close to meeting the requirements of full-
fledged fatherhood. A biological father contributes money and
perhaps some time; a sociological father or two picks up the
slack. And, indeed, for some fortunate children, a
combination of fathers adds up to more paternal time, money,
and attention, not less.
But face it--in many more cases, these attempts to attach
children to a variety of fathers aren't panning out. Fathers
are now increasingly less likely to live with their
biological children--35 percent of children today live apart
from their biological fathers. And when they live apart, the
father's involvement tends to diminish over time. As for the
idea that we can replace biological fathers with father-
surrogates, it's a comforting notion but recent experience
suggests just how hard it is to pull off. Mentoring programs
are particularly struggling to keep pace with growing
caseloads of fatherless boys, a task requiring endless
recruitment campaigns, background checks and training
sessions and still falling short.
As it turns out, finding and keeping a father for every
child who lacks one is a tall order. It takes money and
lavish amounts of effort and invention--not to mention DNA
tests, hospital birth registration programs, child support
orders, visitation agreements, public service announcements
and community fatherhood campaigns--to scrape together what
are still more term-limited and fleeting forms of fatherhood.
As marriage has faded, fatherhood has split along the seam
between biology and sociology.
But more than anything else, this project of trying to
cobble together one father from several kinds of daddies is
contrary to what kids want and need. Anyone who raises
children knows that they are natural social conservatives.
They like order (except perhaps in their bedrooms),
stability, constancy, permanence and security of having
fathers worry about them rather than having the reverse
responsibility of worrying about their father. And as much as
they may benefit from and enjoy their relationships with
other male role models, they aren't likely to confuse coaches
or mentors with a ``real dad.'' Retrograde as it may sound,
most kids still want one father who fulfills multiple roles
all of the time rather than several fathers who fulfill a few
roles some of the time. But today, too many kids have to
content themselves with a kind of fatherhood that is as
paper-thin as the sentiment on a Father's Day greeting card.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

{time} 1500

Mr. WU. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, today, one day after Father's Day, we stand before the
House to encourage the participation

[[Page H4608]]

of fathers in the growth and development of their children. In this
bipartisan effort, we note that the role of fathers in today's families
has always been a prominent issue, but much more so in recent years,
because too many of our children are growing up in homes without the
benefit of a father.
The percentage of children growing up in a home without their father
nearly tripled between 1960 and the early 1999s. Depending on
estimates, today, somewhere between the cited figure of 16 million to
24 million American children are living without their biological
fathers, and it is a shock to me that fully one-third of children today
are born out of wedlock.
Most importantly, fatherless homes have a devastating impact on our
children. It is both common sense, and research indicates, that without
a father, children are four times as likely to be poor and twice as
likely to drop out of school.
Fatherless children also have a higher risk of suicide, teen
pregnancy, drug and alcohol abuse and delinquency. Clearly, the
important role that fathers play in the development of their children
cannot go unnoticed. Unfortunately, the challenges of fatherhood are
not restricted to those who do not pay child support or so-called
deadbeat dads.
Many fathers are caught between their duties at their work and the
responsibilities to their families. The problems encountered by today's
families are not limited to deadbeat dads. There are our families who
are also hampered by deadbeat dads, who want to be there for their
children, but for one reason or another, cannot.
As the father of a 3-year-old boy, Matthew, and a 9-month-old girl,
Sarah Elizabeth, I realize the importance of spending time with my
children and the pain it seems of always being short on that time. We
spend a lot of time doing the Nation's business paddling in this rather
large pond and yet sometimes it does feel to me that once we withdraw
from this arena, that we will leave behind perhaps what one would leave
behind if we pulled our hand out of a bucket of water, the Nation's
business will continue, but I am absolutely confident that I will be
the only father for my children, and I, like many others, struggle
constantly with the needs of the Nation, the needs of our family, and
the needs of providing for both.
Madam Speaker, I am encouraged by the work of the Congressional
Fatherhood Promotion Task Force. Their efforts, throughout this
resolution and other activities have begun to focus attention on the
very important issues of complete families, fatherhood and parental
participation. I believe this resolution sends a very strong signal to
America, and it is a bipartisan resolution that all Members should
support.
Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. SOUDER. Madam Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to my
friend, the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Pitts), who has been a
tireless leader since he came to Congress. Many Americans may not
realize what a driving force he has been, not only on the issue of
fatherhood, but in family values in general, and I am proud to consider
him my friend and thank him again for his leadership on this
resolution.
Mr. PITTS. Madam Speaker, as a cochairman of the Congressional Task
Force on Fatherhood Promotion, I am very pleased to rise to speak in
favor of this resolution.
First of all, I want to thank the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Souder)
for his leadership in putting together this bipartisan effort to move
the resolution. Statistics show that the American family is under siege
as an institution.
Divorce rates are very high. Single parenthood is becoming more and
more common in communities all across the Nation.
About one-third of all babies in this country born are born out of
wedlock today. For some demographic groups, that rate is as high as 70
percent. Tonight, one in four American children that go to bed will go
to bed in a home in which their father does not reside.
Times have certainly changed. In 1960, more than 80 percent of
America's children lived with both of their parents in a home where
both parents were married.
In the last census, that number dropped to 57.7 percent. When a
family breaks apart in divorce, children most often live with their
mother. The effects of growing up without a father are becoming clear.
According to the 1996 Gallup poll, 79.1 percent of Americans feel,
and I quote, ``the most significant family or social problem facing
America is the physical absence of the father from the home.''
I will never forget hearing the famous psychiatrist Dr. Armond Nicoli
speak about fathers and the importance of spending time with their
children. He had done a study of the fathers in the 128 corridor around
Boston and, actually, calculated the amount of time in minutes that a
father spent with his children today and compared that with fathers in
Russia, and he made this point. He said some people say, well, I do not
spend a lot of time with my children, but the time I spend is quality
time. And then he said, you know, quality of time, like the quality of
air and oxygen is very important, but the lack of it will kill you.
It is important that we spend time and spend a good amount of time
with our children. What role does a father play in a home? Well, I am
sure we all have our own stories and mine is not necessarily right, but
some of the things I used to try to do is I spent 3 days a week in the
State Capitol away from my children, and every night I would get them
on the phone and talk to each one of them on the phone.
I would schedule breakfast every quarter, every third month with each
of them individually out in a restaurant with them, to listen to them,
to talk to them. It was a wonderful time, and my kids are all grown,
they still like to have breakfast with me.
I still send them each a letter every month. There are lots of
different kinds of things that we can do. As families we can read to
them every evening. There are so many times and things that we can do
to express our love and spend our time with our children. Some men
perhaps make better fathers than others, I suppose, but clearly,
overall, children with two parents are greatly benefitted by it.
Thank God for our single parents and our single moms, but they need
help, and studies show that even in a high crime or an inner-city
neighborhood, well over 90 percent of children from safe, stable two
parent homes do not become delinquents. Children with fathers at home
tend to do better in school. They are less prone to depression, and
they have more successful relationships.
The National Fatherhood Initiative founded by Dr. Wade Horn and Don
Eberly from my district have helped to stem the tide of children being
raised in homes without fathers.
Dr. Horn tells us that when the National Fatherhood Initiative was
founded, the topic of fatherhood was still not considered an issue of
national significance. The first and the most important task that NFI
set out to accomplish was to stimulate a broad-based societywide social
movement on behalf of involved, committed, responsible fatherhood.
The National Fatherhood Initiative is doing a very effective job, I
think, and celebrities like Tom Selleck, James Earl Jones, Tiger Woods
and his father Earl, General Colin Powell, Coach Joe Paterno have all
lent their names and efforts to this cause.
I, along with several other Members in Congress, have come together
to form this task force on fatherhood promotion trying to raise the
profile of the issue by legislative have means, and the NFI has been
very successful.
Thousands of community-based grassroots programs designed to provide
support, skills, encouragement to fathers have sprung up all over the
country. Dozens of governors have held fatherhood conferences.
Fatherlessness is getting the attention that it finally deserves.
According to the 1996 Gallup poll, 90.9 percent of parents believe it
is important for children to live in a home with both father and
mother.
This resolution recognizes that the creation of a better country
depends in large part on the active involvement of both parents,
fathers in helping, rearing and developing their children.
This resolution urges each father in America to accept his full share
of responsibility for the lives of his children, to be actively
involved in rearing his children, to encourage the academic moral,
spiritual development of his children.

[[Page H4609]]

This resolution urges governments and institutions at every level to
remove barriers to father involvement, to enact public policies that
are father friendly, that encourage and support the efforts of fathers
who want to become more engaged in the lives of their children.
It encourages each father to devote time, energy and resources to his
children, recognizing that children need not only material support, but
also, more importantly, a secure, and nurturing, family environment.
Finally, this resolution expresses our support for the National
Fatherhood Initiative, its work to inspire and equip fathers to be
positively involved in raising and developing their children.
Madam Speaker, the family is the core of American society. As goes
the American family, so goes America. The most important thing we can
do is to make sure the American family is on a strong footing, and that
means restoring American fatherhood.
Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote for this resolution.
Mr. WU. Madam Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the
gentlewoman from Indiana (Ms. Carson).
(Ms. CARSON asked and was given permission to revise and extend her
remarks.)
Ms. CARSON. Madam Speaker, I am certainly appreciative of my
colleagues and the other gentlemen who have come together to form the
Congressional Fatherhood Task Force and appreciative of their work.
Madam Speaker, I would like to preface my remarks by saying that I am
probably one of the few Members in Congress who knows how it is to grow
up in a home with a single parent, and that does not in any way
distract from the good work of my dear mother, obviously, I am now in
Congress. I know that she smiles upon me from heaven, and it was indeed
a struggle, and I would have wanted very much to have had a father in
the home. So I guess my remarks are not only those that are prepared,
but ones that speaks from the heart, having lived and breathed a single
parent household for all of my childhood life.
David Blankethorn published a book, Madam Speaker, and Members called
Fatherless America: Confronting Our Most Urgent Social Problem,
criticizing the American culture and social institutions for
undermining the father's role in the family and weakening the bond
between men and their children.
This book along with many other publications provides, I believe, a
foundation for the fatherhood movement that has surged over the last 5
years, and I am so happy that we are now about to do the business about
giving some vital and needed attention to this whole question of
fatherhood and what fatherhood is and what it is not in terms of our
children across the country.
Society and our many systems would have us believe that financial
support from fathers is a primary need for many of our children that
are currently being raised by single mothers. Unfortunately, financial
support from fathers is not the only need of these children and in some
instances may not be the critical need as we have been led to believe.
Emotional support, love and stability is just as important for a child
as financial support from a father.
Fathers are important to their children and should play an important
role in their lives beyond the role of being the breadwinner. Poor
children need love and support just like any other children. Fathers
need to have a relationship with their children regardless of their
financial status. Unfortunately, many poor fathers are viewed as
deadbeat dads instead of dead broke dads. It is not that these fathers
are unwillingly to financially support their children, it is that they
are unable to do so due to many societal challenges, unemployment and
underemployment.
I believe it is imperative to recognize the importance of the
noncustodial father for their efforts instead of berating them for
their inability to pay a fixed amount of child support each month. Many
fathers are active in the lives of their children because they want to
be very active in the lives of their children not because they have to
be active in the lives of their children. Some men are silent,
unfortunately, cohabitating with partners without the benefit of
marriage, because the women sometimes see very limited income from
welfare, and the presence of the father would jeopardize the household
from getting the kind of benefits that are available for a mother and
child.
Many women who are low income, underemployed would very much like for
the child's father to be there and provide some of the support that
they need.
We understand that a lot of the fathers, when they suffer from low
literacy and poor employment history and, unfortunately, the wars in
which America has been engaged has perpetuated a lot of substance abuse
and a lot of fatherless children.
There is an array of issues, Madam Speaker, that we should be
examining as a United States Congress to see if we can dismantle some
of the obstacles that prevent fathers from being with their children
and develop policy that encourages rather than discourage the
fermenting of the family unit.

{time} 1515

It is time for us to support responsible fatherhood. I support the
amendment enthusiastically and applaud the vision and the creativity of
my colleagues in this august body for bringing it before this chamber.
I would encourage support.
Mr. WU. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, I want to observe that there are as many different
forms of families in America as there are families. I think that the
vast majority of fathers do want to be present, but there are times
when needs draw us apart.
My family history is that which just about every American family has
shared at one time or another in their respective family histories. My
dad came to America when I was 4 months old, and he was physically
absent from my youth until I was about 7. But even though he was
physically absent, he was always a presence in our family. I knew him
from little blue aerograms, toys at holiday times, and chocolate bars.
But to me he was always the heroic figure who was cutting the new path
in America, and there was a deep purpose to his absence.
Compared to the sacrifices that my parents went through, my weekly
separations from my children seem like little pikers in comparison.
That is what helps me get through those periods of separation, and I
guess I just want to recognize that there are common threads in all
American families. We share the will to make sacrifices for a common
good, for the future of the family, and we have to fight it in
different ways. But if fathers are to be absent for short periods of
time, or for long, let it be for purposeful activity, for truly
overriding important factors in the family history and family life.
It is a pattern of sacrifice that we are called to at times, but if
there is not this overriding incredible purpose, sense of history and
sense of where the family must go, then I strongly encourage fathers to
be with their children, to be with their families as much as possible,
to not go through the travails of separation and sometimes the travails
of reunion.
Madam Speaker, I urge the adoption of this bipartisan resolution.
Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. SOUDER. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, first I want to thank my friend from Oregon on the
Committee on Education and the Workforce for his moving statement and
his support of this resolution, and my fellow Hoosier, the gentlewoman
from Indianapolis, Indiana (Ms. Carson), for her personal statement and
general statement in support of this resolution as well.
It is kind of awkward for us in Congress. One of the things that I
hear probably most frequently at the personal level from other Members
is the struggle of those of us who still have kids at home and the
relationship to those kids and trying to do this duty. It is very easy
to feel guilty in this job, unless you are a very kind of hard-skinned
person.
Many of us tend to blame any problems we have with our kids on the
fact that we are separated at times, when, in fact, we might still have
those problems there. But it is very easy to worry

[[Page H4610]]

about those, and each of us try to deal with it in different ways,
whether it is bringing our families here; whether it is trying to
travel with them, I use my frequent flier miles to try to bring my kids
with me to different hearings and different events; trying to call home
each night; trying to e-mail, when I can remember my quick-dot-name, my
handle; whether is it is losing video games to your kids at home on a
regular basis, I do not think I have ever won, unless I do not play
fair.
It is something that they need that time, and it is something we
struggle with. But it is a balance of setting an example. But then when
you set the example, or when you try to inspire your kids, you also
have an extra responsibility, as many of us do in this House, to reach
out to our children, because if we lose our family and gain the world,
we have lost everything. It is very easy to do that here, and if we are
going to pass resolutions like this, we have to get our own house in
order first and be an example, because the people who watch us in our
home towns and the people who watch us around the country say, ``Well,
look at them. They will pass a resolution in Congress, but what are
they doing with their own families?''
We have tried to address some of the policy questions that were
raised too, whether it is in welfare reform and the accountability of
child support, because at the very minimum, the kids deserve the
financial support when a dad abandons.
We also tried to address child abuse. It is so hard for me to
understand any father who could physically or sexually or verbally
abuse their children. You talk about an anathema, how could a dad who
loves their kids beat their kids? I just do not understand that, and it
is something we are wrestling with in our society.
We praise all the moms who stood in for the dads that have abandoned
their kids. We praise all the coaches, all the mentors, all the
volunteers in this country who stepped up and stood in the gap when the
dad abandons their families.
But the purpose of this resolution is to say that the men of America,
the dads in America, need to stand up. If you are not home, get home,
and get involved in your kids' life. If you are there, as much as
possible, do not just go off into your basketball leagues and your
bowling leagues and out to golf and go out with your friends. Spend
time with your kids. You will regret it the rest of your life if you do
not, and the country has to pay the consequence.
Mr. GOODLING. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of H. Res. 522
offered by my colleague, the gentleman from Pennsylvania, Mr. Pitts.
House Resolution 522 expresses the importance of fathers in the rearing
and development of their children. This resolution enjoys bipartisan
support, including both the Republican and Democrat leadership and I am
pleased to have the opportunity this afternoon to speak on behalf of
it.
This resolution is timely. Yesterday, we celebrated Father's Day, a
holiday that was started in 1910 in Spokane, Washington by Sonora
Louise Smart Dodd. Ms. Dodd wanted to honor and thank her father for
raising her and her five siblings after her mother died in childbirth.
It was recognized nationally in 1972 by President Nixon to honor the
significant role fathers play in the upbringing of their children.
Although families across the country just recognized and honored
fathers, we should be concerned about the fact that the United States
is the world's leader in fatherless families. In fact, it is estimated
that half of all United States children born today will spend at least
half of their childhood in a family in which the father is absent.
Madam Speaker, every child has a father, but not every child has a
dad and the consequences of not having father figures are
disheartening. Studies have shown that children who are reared by a
single parent are less likely to complete high school, earn less, and
have lower employment stability than children reared in two-parent
families.
In a study of juveniles in state reform institutions, it was found
that 70 percent of such juveniles grew up in single or no parent homes.
Additionally, it has been found that in high-crime, inner-city
neighborhoods, well over 90 percent of children from safe, stable, two-
parent homes do not become delinquent.
Madam Speaker, those examples serve to illustrate my strong belief
that nothing can replace the father in a child's life. Fathers are role
models and offer their children the most important ingredients that
they should have throughout their childhood: love, guidance,
discipline, encouragement, experience, trust and faith.
This resolution rightly recognizes that the creation of a better
America depends in large part on the active involvement of fathers in
the rearing and development of their children.
H. Res. 522 urges each father in America to accept his full share of
responsibility for the lives of his children, to be actively involved
in rearing his children, and to encourage the academic, moral and
spiritual development of his children.
I commend the gentleman from Pennsylvania for his leadership in
authoring this resolution and urge my colleagues to adopt this measure.
Mr. WATTS of Oklahoma. Madam Speaker, today I rise as a cosponsor and
supporter of H. Res. 522. I commend the gentleman from Pennsylvania,
Mr. Pitts on this fine piece of legislation.
This past weekend, I was fortunate to be recognized for my work by
the most important people in America. I was not recognized by some
organization for my work as a Congressman, but by my children for my
work as their father. My role as a father is the most important role in
my life. This past weekend families all over the country celebrated
Father's Day, and recognized their fathers for all the hard work and
love and encouragement they provide.
Today, we here in Washington wish to say thank you to all of the
fathers who work every day to instill good values in their children. We
wish to say thank you to all of the fathers who make sure their
children finish their homework before they go outside to play with
their friends. We wish to say thank you for making your children eat
all of those green vegetables before they have those Oreo cookies. We
wish to say thank you for having the patience to teach your children
how to catch a baseball, ride a bicycle, say no to drugs, and drive a
car responsibly. I know it is not always easy to be the guy who has to
be in all of these places at once, but you all have such an important
role to your children and our society.
Finally, I want to say thank you to my father. I remember growing up
in Eufala, Oklahoma when my father worked three jobs to keep food on
the table. He still had the time to instill in me the values that have
made me the man I am today. Thank you Daddy.
Today I urge all my colleagues to support this piece legislation, and
send thanks to all of our responsible fathers across this great nation.
Mr. SOUDER. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mrs. Biggert). The question is on the motion
offered by the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Souder) that the House
suspend the rules and agree to the resolution, H. Res 522.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds having voted in favor
thereof) the rules were suspended and the resolution was agreed to.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

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