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Child Support Enforcement CHILD SUPPORT ENFORCEMENT HEARING BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON HUMAN RESOURCES OF THE COMMITTEE ON WAYS AND MEANS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED SIXTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION MAY 18, 2000 Serial 106±82 Printed for the use of the Committee on Ways and Means ( U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 66±898 CC WASHINGTON : 2001 For sale by the U.S. Government Printing Office, Superintendent of Documents, Congressional Sales Office, Washington, DC 20402 VerDate 20-JUL-2000 12:40 Jan 09, 2001 Jkt 060010 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 5011 Sfmt 5011 K:\HEARINGS\66898.TXT WAYS1 PsN: WAYS1 COMMITTEE ON WAYS AND MEANS BILL ARCHER, Texas, Chairman PHILIP M. CRANE, Illinois CHARLES B. RANGEL, New York BILL THOMAS, California FORTNEY PETE STARK, California E. CLAY SHAW, JR., Florida ROBERT T. MATSUI, California NANCY L. JOHNSON, Connecticut WILLIAM J. COYNE, Pennsylvania AMO HOUGHTON, New York SANDER M. LEVIN, Michigan WALLY HERGER, California BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, Maryland JIM MCCRERY, Louisiana JIM MCDERMOTT, Washington DAVE CAMP, Michigan GERALD D. KLECZKA, Wisconsin JIM RAMSTAD, Minnesota JOHN LEWIS, Georgia JIM NUSSLE, Iowa RICHARD E. NEAL, Massachusetts SAM JOHNSON, Texas MICHAEL R. MCNULTY, New York JENNIFER DUNN, Washington WILLIAM J. JEFFERSON, Louisiana MAC COLLINS, Georgia JOHN S. TANNER, Tennessee ROB PORTMAN, Ohio XAVIER BECERRA, California PHILIP S. ENGLISH, Pennsylvania KAREN L. THURMAN, Florida WES WATKINS, Oklahoma LLOYD DOGGETT, Texas J.D. HAYWORTH, Arizona JERRY WELLER, Illinois KENNY HULSHOF, Missouri SCOTT MCINNIS, Colorado RON LEWIS, Kentucky MARK FOLEY, Florida A.L. SINGLETON, Chief of Staff JANICE MAYS, Minority Chief Counsel SUBCOMMITTEE ON HUMAN RESOURCES NANCY L. JOHNSON, Connecticut, Chairman PHILIP S. ENGLISH, Pennsylvania BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, Maryland WES WATKINS, Oklahoma FORTNEY PETE STARK, California RON LEWIS, Kentucky ROBERT T. MATSUI, California MARK FOLEY, Florida WILLIAM J. COYNE, Pennsylvania SCOTT MCINNIS, Colorado WILLIAM J. JEFFERSON, Louisiana JIM MCCRERY, Louisiana DAVE CAMP, Michigan Pursuant to clause 2(e)(4) of Rule XI of the Rules of the House, public hearing records of the Committee on Ways and Means are also published in electronic form. The printed hearing record remains the official version. Because electronic submissions are used to prepare both printed and electronic versions of the hearing record, the process of converting between various electronic formats may introduce unintentional errors or omissions. Such occur- rences are inherent in the current publication process and should diminish as the process is further refined. ii VerDate 20-JUL-2000 12:40 Jan 09, 2001 Jkt 060010 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 0486 Sfmt 0486 K:\HEARINGS\66898.TXT WAYS1 PsN: WAYS1 C O N T E N T S Page Advisory of May 11, 2000, announcing the hearing ............................................. 2 WITNESSES U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Hon. Olivia A. Golden, Ph.D., Assistant Secretary for Children and Families ...................................... 16 Castle, Hon. Michael N., a Representative in Congress from the State of Delaware ............................................................................................................... 9 Center for Law and Social Policy, Vicki Turetsky ................................................ 56 Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Wendell Primus .................................... 30 Cox, Hon. Christopher, a Representative in Congress from the State of Cali- fornia ..................................................................................................................... 13 Dads Against Discrimination, Victor Smith .......................................................... 95 Harris County, Texas, Office of the District Clerk, Charles Bacarisse ............... 106 Massachusetts Department of Revenue, and Massachusetts Commission on Responsible Fatherhood and Family Support, Marilyn Ray Smith ................. 47 Minnesota Department of Human Services, Laura Kadwell ............................... 87 National Child Support Enforcement Association, Dianna Durham-McCloud ... 42 National Women's Law Center, Joan Entmacher ................................................. 79 Supportkids.com, Vanessa Diaz .............................................................................. 100 Texas Child Support Division, Howard G. Baldwin, Jr. ....................................... 66 SUBMISSIONS FOR THE RECORD Association for Children for Enforcement of Support, Inc., Toledo, OH, Geral- dine Jensen, statement ........................................................................................ 117 Children's Defense Fund, Deborah Weinstein, statement ................................... 123 Children's Rights Council, David L. Levy, statement .......................................... 125 Cooperative Parenting for Divided Families, Pittsburgh, PA, Denise Simpson, letter and attachments ........................................................................................ 126 Fathers are Parents, Too, Lilburn, GA, John Haeger, statement ....................... 129 Hatfield, Malcolm, Racine, WI, letter and attachments ....................................... 132 Jeanes, Hon. Michael K., Clerk of the Superior Court, Maricopa County, AZ, statement and attachment ........................................................................... 134 Men's Defense Association, Forest Lake, MN, Richard F. Doyle, statement ...... 137 NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund, New York, NY, Martha Davis, statement .............................................................................................................. 139 Policy Studies Inc., Denver, CO, Robert G. Williams, statement ........................ 141 Women for Fatherhood, Honeoye, NY, Becky Kiely, statement .......................... 143 iii VerDate 20-JUL-2000 12:40 Jan 09, 2001 Jkt 060010 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 0486 Sfmt 0486 K:\HEARINGS\66898.TXT WAYS1 PsN: WAYS1 VerDate 20-JUL-2000 12:40 Jan 09, 2001 Jkt 060010 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 0486 Sfmt 0486 K:\HEARINGS\66898.TXT WAYS1 PsN: WAYS1 CHILD SUPPORT ENFORCEMENT THURSDAY, MAY 18, 2000 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, COMMITTEE ON WAYS AND MEANS, SUBCOMMITTEE ON HUMAN RESOURCES, Washington, DC. The Subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:02 a.m. in room B-318, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Nancy L. Johnson (Chairman of the Subcommittee) presiding. (1) VerDate 20-JUL-2000 12:40 Jan 09, 2001 Jkt 060010 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 K:\HEARINGS\66898.TXT WAYS1 PsN: WAYS1 2 ADVISORY FROM THE COMMITTEE ON WAYS AND MEANS SUBCOMMITTEE ON HUMAN RESOURCES FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: (202) 225±1025 May 11, 2000 No. HR±21 Johnson Announces Hearing on Child Support Enforcement Congresswoman Nancy L. Johnson (R±CT), Chairman, Subcommittee on Human Resources of the Committee on Ways and Means, today announced that the Sub- committee 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<a name=″6″> 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 appear- ance 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 devel- oped to collect child support payments from parents who do not live with their chil- dren. In 1998, the most recent year for which data are available, the program col- lected 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 pro- gram 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 collec- tions have improved so much in recent years. However, as the States work toward even more effective implementation of the welfare reform provisions, there are sev- eral 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 enforce- ment officials, believe most or all of this money should go to mothers and children. Another issue is that a large number
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