Opening Statement of the Hon. Benjamin L. Cardin, a Representative in Congress from the State of Maryland

Hearing on Child Support and Fatherhood

June 28, 2001

Mr. Chairman, I commend you for holding this hearing to evaluate proposals on improving our Nation's child support enforcement system and on promoting responsible fatherhood. I hope today's hearing represents the first step towards this panel passing long overdue reforms to the child support system.

I am very pleased that we are joined today by a panel of our colleagues who have considerable experience in these issues. Nancy Johnson has been a pioneer in improving our child support system, and I was very pleased to join her earlier this year in reintroducing the Child Support Distribution Act, HR 1471. An almost identical version of this bill passed the House last year by a vote of 405 to 18.

We are also joined by Mike Castle, who has championed an expansion of an existing child support collection tool (a proposal that is included in the larger Johnson bill), and by Chris Cox, who has proposed a change in the tax code to encourage the payment of past-due child support.

Mr. Chairman, if you took a poll that asked whether child support payments should go to the children for whom it was paid, I am sure the vast majority of Americans would say -- Yes, of course those payments should be used to support children. That's why we call it child support.

Unfortunately, our child support laws provide a very different response to that question. Current law actually penalizes States that send child support collections to families struggling to leave welfare, and in some cases, to families that have already left public assistance.

For example, if a State sends a child support collection to family on welfare, it still owes the Federal government between half and three-quarters of that same child support payment. This has discouraged States from passing through child support -- and encouraged them to adopt an effective 100% tax rate on child support payments to certain families.

The Johnson-Cardin Child Support Distribution Act, HR 1471, would end this disincentive for States to send child support to families. This bipartisan measure would provide States with various options to send child support to low-income families -- with the Federal government acting as a financial partner, rather than a financial barrier. For example, States would be permitted to pass-through up to $400 a month to families receiving cash welfare, as long as the amount is disregarded for welfare payment purposes. In addition, States could send all support to families that have left cash welfare.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates these reforms would send an additional $6.3 billion in child support to low-income families over the next ten years compared to current law.

There are three primary benefits to passing through more child support to current and former welfare families. First and most obviously, the policy will result in more resources to provide food, clothes and shelter for some of our Nation's poorest children.

Second, passing through child support will encourage non-custodial parents to pay support because they will know their payments are going to benefit their families, rather than going to State and Federal treasuries. Perhaps just as importantly, this enhanced sense of financial responsibility may actually foster closer emotional ties between absent parents and their children.

And third, this change will greatly simplify the administration of the child support system, which will free up caseworkers to ensure the payment of child support, instead of spending precious time on complying with complicated and time-consuming Federal regulations.

In addition to the child support reforms,

HR 1471 includes $155 million for competitive grants designed to promote responsible fatherhood. This section of the bill, which includes a fully-funded evaluation, will give us some much needed data on how we can improve certain parents prospects for employment, marriage and an improved relationship with their children.

I hope this subcommittee will pass legislation including these vitally important child support and fatherhood provisions as soon as humanly possible. The Child Support Distribution Act has the overwhelming support of both Republicans and Democrats and of groups representing both mothers and fathers. We should act on this consensus and pass legislation that will have an immediate and meaningful impact on millions of children. Every day we wait, is one more day that a parent's support will not reach their child.

Thank you.