[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Pages 13540-13541]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                      NATIONAL FATHER'S RETURN DAY

  Mr. GORTON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate 
proceed to the immediate consideration of S. Res. 125, submitted 
earlier today by Senators Lieberman, Gregg, and others.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report.
  The legislative clerk read as follows:

       A resolution (S. Res. 125) encouraging and promoting 
     greater involvement of fathers in their children's lives and 
     designating June 20, 1999, as ``National Father's Return 
     Day.''

  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the 
resolution.
  Mr. GORTON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
resolution be agreed, the preamble be agreed to, the motion to 
reconsider be laid upon the table, and that any statements relating to 
the resolution appear at the appropriate place in the Record.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The resolution (S. Res. 125) was agreed to.
  The preamble was agreed to.
  The resolution, with its preamble, reads as follows:

                              S. Res. 125

       Whereas more than 1 out of every 3 children currently live 
     in a household where the child's father does not reside;
       Whereas approximately half of all the children born in the 
     United States will spend at least half of their childhood in 
     a family without a father figure;
       Whereas approximately 40 to 50 percent of all marriages are 
     predicted to end in divorce;
       Whereas approximately 3 out of every 5 divorcing couples 
     have at least 1 child;
       Whereas almost half of all children aged 11 through 16 that 
     live in mother-headed homes have not seen their father in the 
     last 12 months;
       Whereas 79 percent of people in the United States believe 
     that the most significant family or social problem facing the 
     country is the physical absence of fathers from the home, 
     resulting in a lack of involvement of fathers in the rearing 
     and development of children;
       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 comprised largely 
     of single-parent families;
       Whereas studies reveal that even in high-crime, inner city 
     neighborhoods, over 90 percent of children from safe, stable, 
     2-parent homes do not become delinquents;
       Whereas compared to children reared in 2-parent families, 
     children reared in single-parent families are less likely to 
     complete high school and thus, more likely as adults to 
     obtain low paying, unstable jobs;
       Whereas researchers have linked the presence of fathers 
     with improved fetal and infant development, and father-child 
     interaction has been shown to promote a child's physical 
     well-being, perceptual abilities, and competency for 
     interpersonal relations;
       Whereas researchers have also found that both boys and 
     girls demonstrate a greater ability to take initiative and 
     exercise self-control when they are reared by fathers who are 
     actively involved in their upbringing;
       Whereas the general involvement of parents in the lives of 
     their children has decreased significantly over the last 
     generation;
       Whereas a Gallup Poll indicated that over 50 percent of all 
     adults agree that fathers today spend less time with their 
     children than their fathers spent with them;
       Whereas nearly 20 percent of children in grades 6 through 
     12 report that they have not had a meaningful conversation 
     with even 1 parent in over a month;
       Whereas in a broad survey of 100,000 children in grades 6 
     through 12, less than half of the children ``feel they have 
     family boundaries or high expectations from parents or 
     teachers'';
       Whereas 3 out of 4 adolescents report that ``they do not 
     have adults in their lives that model positive behaviors'';
       Whereas in a widely cited study of the health risks to the 
     young people in the United States, University of Minnesota 
     researchers found that ``independent of race, ethnicity, 
     family structure and poverty status, adolescents who are 
     connected to their parents, their schools, and to their 
     school community are healthier than those who are not'', and 
     that ``when teens feel connected to their families, and when 
     parents are involved in their children's lives, teens are 
     protected'';
       Whereas millions of single mothers in the United States are 
     heroically struggling to raise their children in safe and 
     loving environments;

[[Page 13541]]

       Whereas promoting responsible fatherhood is not meant to 
     diminish the parenting efforts of single mothers, but rather 
     to increase the chances that children will have 2 caring 
     parents to help them grow up healthy and secure;
       Whereas many of this country's leading experts on family 
     and child development agree that it is in the best interest 
     of both children and the United States to encourage more 2-
     parent, father-involved families to form and endure;
       Whereas in 1994, the National Fatherhood Initiative was 
     formed to further the goal of raising societal awareness 
     about the ramifications of father absence and father 
     disengagement by mobilizing a national response to father 
     absence;
       Whereas the Congressional Task Force on Fatherhood 
     Promotion and the Senate Task Force on Fatherhood Promotion 
     that were formed in 1997, the Governors' Task Force on 
     Fatherhood Promotion of 1998, and the Mayor's Task Force on 
     Fatherhood Promotion of 1999 were created to work in 
     partnership with the National Fatherhood Initiative;
       Whereas on June 14, 1999, the National Fatherhood 
     Initiative is holding a national summit on supporting urban 
     fathers in Washington, D.C., to mobilize a response to father 
     absence by many powerful sectors of society, including public 
     policy, social services, educational, religious, 
     entertainment, media, and civic groups; and
       Whereas those groups are working across party, ideological, 
     racial, and gender lines in order to reverse the trend of 
     father absence and disengagement by encouraging and 
     supporting responsible fatherhood and greater father 
     involvement in children's lives: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the Senate--
       (1) recognizes that the creation of a better United States 
     requires the active involvement of fathers in the rearing and 
     development of their children;
       (2) urges each father in the United States 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 emotional, academic, moral, and spiritual 
     development of his children;
       (3) urges the States to hold fathers who ignore their legal 
     responsibilities accountable for their actions and to pursue 
     more aggressive enforcement of child support obligations;
       (4) 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, 
     affectionate, family environment;
       (5) 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 do want to become more engaged in the lives of their 
     children;
       (6) to demonstrate the commitment of the Senate to those 
     critically important goals, designates June 20, 1999, as 
     ``National Father's Return Day'';
       (7) calls on fathers around the country to use the day to 
     reconnect and rededicate themselves to their children's 
     lives, to spend National Father's Return Day with their 
     children, and to express their love and support for them; and
       (8) requests that the President issue a proclamation 
     calling on the people of the United States to observe 
     ``National Father's Return Day'' with appropriate ceremonies 
     and activities.

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