[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 70 (Monday, May 21, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5273-S5274]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Ms. SNOWE (for herself, Mr. Kohl, Mr. Bayh, Mr. Graham, Mr. 
        Johnson, Mr. Lieberman, Mr. Rockfeller, Mr. Breaux, and Mrs. 
        Lincoln):
  S. 918. A bill to provide more child support money to families 
leaving welfare, to simplify the rules governing the assignment and 
distribution of child support collected by States on behalf of 
children, to improve the collection of child support, and for other 
purposes; to the Committee on Finance.
  Ms. SNOWE. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the Child Support 
Distribution Act. This is companion legislation to Congresswoman Nancy 
Johnson's bill in the House. I want to begin by thanking Senator Kohl 
for his leadership on child support issues; I am delighted to have been 
able to team up with him again in this important area.
  I also want to thank Senator Bayh for his leadership on family 
issues. I am pleased that we could work together and incorporate each 
of our ideas in vital legislation which we have already introduced, the 
Strengthening Working Families Act. I am also pleased to have Senators 
Graham, Johnson, Lieberman, Rockfeller, Breaux, Lincoln, Bayh as 
original cosponsors on this bill.
  There is no question that children are the very future of our country 
and I believe fundamentally that every child has the right to grow up 
healthy, happy, and safe. Throughout my career, promoting children's 
well-being and keeping our children safe is a mission that has been 
close to my heart. While we cannot expect the government to ensure that 
every child receives parental love and attention, we can ensure that 
the custodial parent, not the government, receives this vital financial 
support.
  Ending poverty and promoting self-sufficiency is an on-going national 
commitment. Five years ago Congress restored welfare to a temporary 
assistance program, rather than a program that entangles and traps 
generation after generation. In September 2000, there were 5.7 million 
open TANF caseloads for individual recipients, down from 12.2 million, 
a 53 percent reduction, in August 1996 when Welfare Reform became law.
  Unfortunately, while we are succeeding in promoting self-sufficiency 
and self-reliance through welfare reform, we are sending out a double-
edged message on the need to pay child support. Current law regarding 
the assignment and distribution of child support for families on 
welfare is extremely complicated, depending on when families applied 
for welfare, when the child support was paid, whether that child 
support was for current or past-due payments, and depending on

[[Page S5274]]

how the child support was collected, in other words, through direct 
payments, through garnishing wages or other government assistance 
programs, or the federal income tax return intercept program.
  The ``Child Support Distribution Act of 2001'' would provide more 
child support money to families leaving welfare; would simplify the 
rules governing the assignment and distribution of child support 
collected by States; would improve the collection of child support; and 
would authorize demonstration programs encouraging public agencies to 
help collect child support; and provide guidelines for involvement of 
public agencies in child support enforcement.
  Under current law, when child support is collected for families 
receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, TANF, the money is 
divided between the state and federal governments as payment for the 
welfare the family has received. The 1996 Welfare Reform Act gave 
states the option to decide how much, if any, of the state share of 
child support payments collected on behalf of TANF families to send to 
the family.

  The 1996 Welfare Reform law also required that in order to qualify 
for TANF benefits, beneficiaries must ``assign'', or give their child 
support rights to the state for periods before and while the family is 
on welfare. This means that the State is allowed to keep, and divide 
with the federal government, child support arrearages that were owed 
even before the family went on TANF if they are collected while the 
family is receiving welfare benefits.
  The original intent of these assignment and distribution strategies 
was to reimburse the state and federal governments for their outlays to 
the welfare family. But how much sense does it make to tell a family 
that is on welfare or trying to get off welfare that the State is 
entitled to the first cut of any child support payment, even if the 
absent parent begins to pay back the child support that was owed before 
the family went on welfare?
  This means that the state gets the support before a parent can buy 
new shoes for her child, before she can buy her child a new coat for 
the approaching winter, before she can buy groceries for her family, or 
pay the rent for the next month. So in the real world, not just a 
policy-oriented world, our current law regarding child support payments 
provides a disincentive for struggling parents to leave welfare, and it 
certainly provides no incentive for the absent parent to pay, much less 
catch up with, their child support bills. I wonder how we can 
realistically expect to foster a positive relationship between a 
custodial parent, and the parent paying child support, when the State 
is entitled to all of the support money.
  The key provisions of the bill I am introducing today will allow 
states to pass through the entire child support collected on their 
behalf while a person is on welfare; will change how and when child 
support is ``owed'' to the states for reimbursement for welfare 
benefits; and will expand the child support collection provisions such 
as revoking passports for past-due child support.
  We must ensure both non-custodial and custodial parents that child 
support payments are directly benefitting their children. This bill 
will enable families to keep more of the past-due child support owed to 
them and it will further the goals of the 1996 Welfare Reform Act by 
helping families to remain self-sufficient. This bill will give mothers 
leaving welfare an additional $4 billion child support collections over 
the first five years of full implementation. It will also lead to the 
voluntary payment by states of about $900 million over five years in 
child support to families while they are still on welfare.
  Children are the leaders of tomorrow; they are the very future of our 
great nation. We owe them nothing less than the sum of our energies, 
our talents, and our efforts in providing them a foundation on which to 
build happy, healthy and productive lives. And, when appropriate, we 
need to help parents financially support and provide for their 
children. Because it simply makes little sense to ask people to be 
self-sufficient, to pay their child-support bills, and then to allow 
the State to collect all of that child-support.
  I encourage my colleagues to take a serious look at this bill and 
pass it this year.
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