FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, CONTACT: (202) 225-1025
May 11, 2000
No. HR-21
Congresswoman Nancy L. Johnson (R-CT), Chairman, Subcommittee on Human Resources of the Committee on Ways and Means, today announced that the Subcommittee will hold a hearing on child support enforcement. The hearing will take place on Thursday, May 18, 2000, in room B-318 Rayburn House Office Building, beginning at 10:00 a.m.
Oral testimony at this hearing will be from invited witnesses only. Witnesses will include Members of Congress, an official from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, State child support administrators, representatives of advocacy groups, and advocates for local government and private child support entities. However, any individual or organization not scheduled for an oral appearance may submit a written statement for consideration by the Committee and for inclusion in the printed record of the hearing.
BACKGROUND:
The Child Support Enforcement (CSE) program, created in 1975 and authorized under Title IV-D of the Social Security Act, is a State-Federal partnership developed to collect child support payments from parents who do not live with their children. In 1998, the most recent year for which data are available, the program collected nearly $14.4 billion in child support payments for single parents and their children, located 6.5 million noncustodial parents, established 848,000 paternities, and established 1.1 million child support orders. Collections by the CSE program have increased more than 60 percent since 1993.
The 1996 welfare reform law (P.L. 104-193) reformed and improved the CSE program by providing: immediate reporting of employer address and wages for every person hired in the United States, strong paternity establishment requirements, new mechanisms to collect child support payments such as revocation of hunting, fishing, and drivers licenses, and greater automation of the child support system. These provisions are widely believed to be the major reasons child support collections have improved so much in recent years. However, as the States work toward even more effective implementation of the welfare reform provisions, there are several issues that were not fully addressed by the 1996 legislation.
The most important is the question of whether the family or Federal and State Governments get to keep collections on past-due child support. When families are on welfare, Federal and State Governments keep all child support collections. Once families leave welfare, the Federal and State Governments are allowed to keep up to half of the money collected on past-due child support. A series of hearings by the Subcommittee showed that many observers, including State child support enforcement officials, believe most or all of this money should go to mothers and children.
Another issue is that a large number of local child support enforcement agencies and private entities are involved in collecting child support. Current Federal laws restrict the amount of government information and the child support collection methods to which these entities have access. It might be possible to improve child support collections if more information and enforcement methods from the Federal-State program were shared with these other child support entities.
In announcing the hearing, Chairman Johnson stated: "Despite the success of recent bipartisan efforts to improve child support collections, a significant amount of child support goes uncollected. We must use all the tools available to get the child support owed and hold noncustodial parents accountable. Even then we must take the necessary steps to make sure mothers leaving welfare get all the child support they are due."
FOCUS OF THE HEARING:
The hearing will focus on child support enforcement issues and proposals to improve the CSE program, including proposals by Chairman Johnson and Rep. Ben Cardin (D-MD), to increase the amount of child support money going to custodial parents and children.
DETAILS FOR SUBMISSION OF WRITTEN COMMENTS:
Any person or organization wishing to submit a written statement for the printed record of the hearing should submit six (6) single-spaced copies of their statement, along with an IBM compatible 3.5-inch diskette in WordPerfect or MS Word format, with their name, address, and hearing date noted on a label, by the close of business, Thursday, June 1, 2000, to A.L. Singleton, Chief of Staff, Committee on Ways and Means, U.S. House of Representatives, 1102 Longworth House Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20515. If those filing written statements wish to have their statements distributed to the press and interested public at the hearing, they may deliver 200 additional copies for this purpose to the Subcommittee on Human Resources office, room B-317 Rayburn House Office Building, by close of business the day before the hearing.
FORMATTING REQUIREMENTS:
Each statement presented for printing to the Committee by a witness, any written statement or exhibit submitted for the printed record or any written comments in response to a request for written comments must conform to the guidelines listed below. Any statement or exhibit not in compliance with these guidelines will not be printed, but will be maintained in the Committee files for review and use by the Committee.
1. All statements and any accompanying exhibits for printing must be submitted on an IBM compatible 3.5-inch diskette WordPerfect or MS Word format, typed in single space and may not exceed a total of 10 pages including attachments. Witnesses are advised that the Committee will rely on electronic submissions for printing the official hearing record.
2. Copies of whole documents submitted as exhibit material will not be accepted for printing. Instead, exhibit material should be referenced and quoted or paraphrased. All exhibit material not meeting these specifications will be maintained in the Committee files for review and use by the Committee.
3. A witness appearing at a public hearing, or submitting a statement for the record of a public hearing, or submitting written comments in response to a published request for comments by the Committee, must include on his statement or submission a list of all clients, persons, or organizations on whose behalf the witness appears.
4. A supplemental sheet must accompany each statement listing the name, company, address, telephone and fax numbers where the witness or the designated representative may be reached. This supplemental sheet will not be included in the printed record.
The above restrictions and limitations apply only to material being submitted for printing. Statements and exhibits or supplementary material submitted solely for distribution to the Members, the press, and the public during the course of a public hearing may be submitted in other forms.
The
Committee seeks to make its facilities accessible to persons with
disabilities. If you are in need of special accommodations, please
call 202-225-1721 or 202-226-3411 TTD/TTY in advance of the event
(four business days notice is requested). Questions with regard to
special accommodation needs in general (including availability of
Committee materials in alternative formats) may be directed to the
Committee as noted above.