Legislation reauthorizes and reforms child welfare programs and strengthens child support enforcement.

As prepared for delivery.

“Let me begin by wishing Representative Pascrell a speedy recovery from his hospital stay. We are looking forward to having him back.

“From the start of this Congress, this Committee has made regular Americans, those folks that for too long have been largely invisible and ignored by Washington, our top priority. This includes children who are growing up in difficult circumstances without the resources and care they need. 

“Today, we are considering two bills to provide real help to these vulnerable children and their families. We have before us a reauthorization and reform of our nation’s child welfare programs as well as legislation to ensure states can continue to collect child support on behalf of millions of families across the country. 

“The bipartisan Protecting America’s Children by Strengthening Families Act, introduced by Work and Welfare Subcommittee Chairman LaHood and Ranking Member Davis, will reauthorize and reform child welfare programs under Title IV-B of the Social Security Act. Authorization for these programs expired in fiscal year 2021, and there have been no serious reforms since 2008. It is the responsibility of this Committee to ensure funding is authorized. 

“The bill is the product of this Committee’s top-to-bottom review of the child welfare system over the last year. The Ways and Means Committee has held more hearings on the topic this Congress than the last eight years combined. We have traveled outside the halls of Congress, to Chicago and Arizona, to hear directly from Americans about their ideas to improve child welfare.

“We know that children do best when they can stay with their families, and this legislation will increase community-based support to ensure that happens. This reauthorization is focused on the challenges that states are facing and to support family reunification, prevent child abuse and neglect, and promote successful and lasting adoptions. We are cutting red tape that stands in the way of keeping families together and supporting the safety and well-being of children in foster care.

“This bill is really an entire Committee effort. Representatives LaHood, Davis, Smith, Wenstrup, Smucker, Hern, Miller, Fitzpatrick, Steube, Tenney, Blake Moore, Steel, Feenstra, Carey, Larson, Chu, Gwen Moore, Kildee, and Panetta, all introduced solutions that are included in this legislation. It’s a long list, but it shows this Committee’s commitment and longstanding history of bipartisan policy to protect children. 

“I represent one of the poorest Congressional districts in the country, and before I came to Congress, I practiced family law and saw firsthand how our child welfare system can put undue strain on families. That is why I particularly appreciate the opportunity to have worked with Representative Gwen Moore in introducing legislation – included in this bill – that prevents child services from taking children away from their families simply because they live in poverty. I think about the families separated in Missouri over the years not because of abuse or neglect, but because they could not afford to pay a bill or new clothes for their kids. It is not right, and this bill corrects that. 

“Instead of punishing poverty, this policy helps families struggling financially with one-time material needs that might prevent a child from being removed from their family. This is a commonsense policy for children and taxpayers. The priority should always be that children are in loving and safe homes and that is what this legislation emphasizes.

“In the same vein of helping parents, we are also taking up the bipartisan Strengthening State and Tribal Child Support Enforcement Act introduced by Representatives Hern, LaHood, Schweikert, Smucker, Gwen Moore, and DelBene. 

“The IRS recently adopted a new rule that will take effect in October prohibiting states, and by extension, tribes, from using contractors to collect child support payments. The program in question, the Child Support Enforcement, is one of our most cost-effective ways we help families get the support they need. For every $1 spent, nearly $5 is collected by families. Nearly 13 million families representing 18 percent of all children in the United States benefit. Without this legislation, IRS rulemaking will force taxpayers to needlessly spend hundreds of millions of dollars more to hire new people to do the same job already done by contractors. 

“The worst outcome would be borne by families. Millions of parents could stop receiving the needed child support to provide for their kids. That’s millions of parents who would further struggle to feed, clothe, and shelter their children. 

“Additionally, this legislation extends the same fairness and treatment to tribal child support agencies as currently experienced by states. Tribal agencies would have access to the necessary tax information with the same privacy safeguards to collect child support on behalf of their families.

“One of the bedrock beliefs about America is that everyone deserves the same chance to succeed in life regardless of their background or the circumstances they were born into. I know many members of this Committee are living proof of that core principle. The policies we are considering today take us a step closer toward making that promise true for millions of kids across the country.”