[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 105 (Monday, September 11, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1438-E1439]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 CHILD SUPPORT DISTRIBUTION ACT OF 2000

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                    HON. JUANITA MILLENDER-McDONALD

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, September 7, 2000

  Ms. MILLENDER-McDONALD. Mr. Speaker, I stand today in support of H.R. 
4678, the Child Support Distribution Act. This bill would help poor 
children escape poverty, strengthen families, and enhance welfare 
reform by making improvements to the child support system. These 
improvements would allow more of the child-support collected from 
noncustodial parents to reach the children on whose behalf these 
payments are made. When fully implemented, this bill would increase 
income to children and their custodial parents by over $1 billion a 
year. In addition the bill simplifies child support distribution rules, 
and promotes responsible fatherhood. Passage of this bill will result 
in several important benefits to families by distributing more support 
to families to help them maintain employment and reduce welfare 
receipt, simplifying state child support systems and providing needed 
services to low-income parents to help them support and raise their 
children.
  The bill ensures that once a family has left welfare, that family has 
the first claim on all child support paid by the father. Under current 
law, child support collected is first applied to

[[Page E1439]]

taxes owed to the state. Child support payments begin to repay debts 
owed to custodial families only after the debt to the state has been 
completely repaid. The changes proposed in the Child Support 
Distribution Act would help families that have left welfare to stay off 
welfare by providing additional resources to them at a time when they 
are likely to be vulnerable to economic hardship. Child support is an 
important income supplement for low-income working families. According 
to the Center for Law and Social Policy, when single-mother families 
receive child support, their poverty rate drops from 33 to 22 percent.
  The Child Support Distribution Act would also dramatically simplify 
rules governing the assignment and distribution of child support 
payments. According to the National Governors' Association, ``The 
complexity of current child support distribution rules creates a costly 
administrative burden for both states and the Federal Government.'' The 
current rules are expensive to administer, and difficult for child 
support staff to explain and for parents to understand. The Child 
Support Distribution Act addresses these issues and provides funding to 
community-based and state programs working directly with low-income 
custodial parents to help them support their children financially and 
emotionally. This legislation gives funding preferences to community 
programs that partner with domestic violence programs and child support 
agencies.
  This bill includes a number of complementary provisions that are 
beneficial to low-income children and families. Several provisions in 
the bill are intended to help low-income fathers improve their capacity 
to support their children financially and emotionally. The changes the 
bill makes in the child support system would allow a larger portion of 
the child support that low-income fathers pay to benefit their 
children. These provisions represent an investment in stronger families 
that should reduce poverty among these children, help low-income 
parents receive services they need, and strengthen children's ties with 
their fathers, who will be better able to see the result of their hard-
earned contributions when they pay child support. These changes should 
make child support easier to administer and empower states to integrate 
the collection and distribution of child support with their own welfare 
reform strategies.
  I strongly support H.R. 4678, the Child Support Distribution Act and 
urge my colleagues to do the same.

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