Statement of the Hon. Nancy L. Johnson, a Representative in Congress from the State of Connecticut

Testimony Before the Subcommittee on Human Resources
of the House Committee on Ways and Means

Hearing on Child Support and Fatherhood

June 28, 2001

Mr. Chairman, and members of the committee, thank you for holding this hearing today and for your tireless efforts on behalf of our nation=s families. I would also like to thank the Ranking Member, Mr. Cardin, for his hard work and insight in this area.

The 1996 welfare reform law has been one of the greatest social policy successes of the last half century. Due in great measure to this law and excellent reforms in the earned income credit, Medicaid child care, and other programs that support working families, work by single mothers, and especially never-married single mothers, has increased in the last 5 years to its highest level ever.

As a result, according to a broad Census Bureau measure of poverty, we have reduced child poverty by nearly 30 percent in the last 5 years. This is a historic achievement made possible by legislation that originated in this body.

Welfare reform has put us on the right track. But many of these single mothers and their children are struggling on extremely low incomes. Those who used to be on welfare are now in the workforce, but all too often their day-to-day personal struggle is nothing short of heroic. They work hard to juggle transportation, child care, work, and family time. It is a big job and millions of women are tackling it with determination and grit.

This is why I, along with my good friend Mr. Cardin, have reintroduced the Child Support Distribution Act. I am proud to say this legislation passed the House of Representatives last September by an overwhelming vote of 405-18. This legislation is designed to ensure that these mothers who have left welfare get all the help they deserve. Under this bill they will get to keep more of the child support money the fathers of their children are paying.

It is time to modernize the child support system's connection with welfare and require that a woman gets 100 percent of the father's child support payment as she leaves welfare. That is exactly what this bill does.

When fully implemented, this legislation will provide young mothers leaving welfare with an additional $700 million per year. That is $3.5 billion over 5 years. And every penny of it comes from child support payments made by fathers.

In addition, this bill allows states to pass along child support through to the family while the family is still on welfare. This will encourage the development of the bond between the noncustodial and custodial parent, help them develop an understanding of their economic ties, and better prepare families for the transfer off of welfare. Remember, if they understand the economic ties that bind, they are going to be better positioned to develop the emotional ties on which a secure life for the child depends.

Of course, the best solution for these single mothers and their children would be to form two-parent families through marriage. We now have overwhelming evidence from research that marriage is good for health and happiness of both mothers and fathers, but the greatest beneficiaries of marriage are the children.

Thus, as part of this very balanced legislation, we propose to fund small-scale community and faith-based projects throughout the Nation to promote marriage and/or better parenting by low-income fathers whose children are on welfare and to help them improve their economic circumstances.

I know that many in this body doubt that government should be involved in promoting marriage, so I urge them to consider how our proposal would work. We want to provide seed money to help faith-based and other community organizations tackle this vital job. Seventy-five percent of the funds must support nongovernmental organizations. So we are not creating a new government program and bureaucracy. Government is simply a mechanism to help private organizations perform this important work.

Let me also mention the legitimate concern of some that women could be pressured into violent relationships. In this bill we have added many provisions to assure that domestic violence and child abuse are prevented and that referrals are made to local services to help families in which violence is occurring.

But we must in good conscience build on the important fact discovered through welfare reform. Because of its paternity determination requirements, we now know that 80 percent of the adults having out-of-wedlock children are serious about their relationship and believe it will be lasting.

Yet, after 2 years, most fathers are out of the picture. This bill will help many poor young men and women, more than half of whom live together when the child is born, and as I said, 80 percent of whom say they hope to form a lasting relationship, to fulfill that dream through education and support.

Young people with low incomes often live in dangerous communities, lack economic security, and have few role models to help them form stable, lasting marriages. These young couples face long odds. This bill will help them work toward marriage, work toward becoming better parents, and work toward economic advancement.

We will now provide the same help in getting a job to the fathers of children on welfare as we do to mothers on welfare. In other areas we will provide some of the education that has so helped women to their male partners. It is just common sense.

This bill will move us a dramatic step forward in helping our poorest young people help themselves by making sure that child support money stays in the family. This will help young mothers to avoid or get off welfare, and bring young fathers and their children closer together.

The fatherhood provisions of this bill promote more responsible behavior by fathers, including marriage, better parenting, and work. Through the fatherhood demonstration grants and the child support distribution reforms, we will bring our Nation a giant step forward on the path to building strong families and helping our poorest young people realize their dreams.

Again, I thank my colleagues on the committee for their support and hard work on this issue and I look forward to continuing our efforts to build stronger families.