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Testimony on Child Support by John Monahan
Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary
Administration for Children and Families
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Greetings and Introduction

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee, thank you for providing me the opportunity to testify today on the progress the Nation’s child support enforcement program is making to help children across America.

As the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Administration for Children and Families, I supervise the Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement and have worked closely with Commissioner David Ross and his teamour child support enforcement staff to develop ways to ensure that parents who owe child support honor their obligations to their children.

President Clinton has made child support enforcement a top priority, and it is paying off, and it is paying off. We recently set new performance records infor the program. In 1998, we collected an estimated $14.4 billion, an increase of over 80 percent since fiscal year 1992 when only $8 billion was collected. Included in the amount is a record $1.1 billion in delinquent child support collected from Federal income tax refunds for tax year 1997. This was a 70 percent increase since 1992, and collections were made on behalf of nearly 1.3 million families. In 1997 we also established 1.3 million paternities, an increase of more than 100 percent since 1992 when 516,949 were established.

Why are these records so important? Child support is an essential part of welfare reform because it sends a message of responsibility to both parents and is a vital part of moving families toward work and self-sufficiency. It helps to ensure that single parent families and their children don’t need to rely on welfare in the first place and for those who leave welfare, it can help to ensure that they don’t fall back on the welfare once they have left it. And child support enforcement affects far more people than just those on welfare. Children in working poor and middle class families depend upon child support for greater financial security as well.

The President signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act in August 1996. Better known as welfare reform, the law provides critical new tools to improve our Nation's child support program – central registries of child support orders, a national Directory of new hires, streamlined paternity establishment procedures, uniform interstate child support laws, license revocation, and passport denial. Whether through use of greater automation, simpler interstate procedures or tougher new penalties, we are working with our state and local partners to make sure that no parents can ignore their financial obligation toward their children, especially when they have the resources to meet their child support obligations. An example of the success we are already seeing from the 1996 welfare law is the National Directory of New Hires, which last year located 1.2 million delinquent parents in interstate cases.

Child support is an essential part of welfare reform because it sends a message of responsibility to both parents and is a vital part of moving families toward work and self-sufficiency. It helps to ensure that single parent families and their children don’t need to rely on welfare in the first place and for those who leave welfare, it can help to ensure that they don’t fall back on the welfare rolls once they have left. Child support enforcement affects far more people than just those on welfare. Children in working poor and middle class families depend upon child support for greater financial security as well.

We are proud of this Administration’s record on child support enforcement, but, as the President has said on numerous occasions, we need to do more.

The Child Support Enforcement Program

Before turning to our new initiative relating to criminal law enforcement, Since this is the first time I have appeared before your Subcommittee, let meI would like to give you a brief overview of how the nation’s Nation’s child support enforcement program operates. The program was established in 1975 under title IV-D of the Social Security Act as a joint Federal/State partnership. As a Federal/State partnership, it functions in all States and territories, generally through social services departments, but also through the offices of State Attorneys General’ or Departments of Revenues. Most States work with prosecuting attorneys and other law enforcement agencies and officials of family or domestic relations courts to carry out the program at the local level.

The child support program locates non-custodial parents, establishes paternity, establishes and enforces support orders, and collects child support payments from those who are legally obligated to pay. While programs vary from state to state, services are available to all parents who need them. States are largely responsible for operating the program, but there tends to be greater Federal involvement in the interstate caseload, which makes up nearly a third of all cases. The Federal Government shares in the cost of funding the CSE program by contributing to states’ administrative costs and providing incentive payments to them. Since 1975 the program has been continually strengthened through Federal and State statutory and Executive actions.

Since 1975 the program has been strengthened through statutory and Executive actions. The Federal Government shares in the cost of funding the CSE program by contributing to states’ administrative costs and providing incentive payments to them.

With your help, the President signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act in August 1996. Better known as welfare reform, the law provides enormous new tools to improve the child support program’s performance for children – central registries of child support orders, streamlined paternity establishment, uniform interstate child support laws, license revocation, and passport denial. Whether through use of greater automation, simpler interstate procedures or tougher new penalties, we are working with our state and local partners to make sure that no parent can ignore their financial obligation toward their children, especially when they have the resources to meet their child support obligations. An example of the success we already seeing from the 1996 welfare law is the National Directory of New Hires which last year located 1.1 million delinquent parents in interstate cases.

We are proud of this Administration’s record on child support enforcement, but, as the President has said on numerous occasions, we need to do more.

Chronic Nonpayers and the Deadbeat Parents Act

We know that many non-custodial parents take seriously their moral responsibilities to pay child support regularly and on time. These parents recognize the importance of the financial and emotional support their children need and voluntarily meet these responsibilities. We also know there are many low-income non-custodial parents who want to do the right thing and support their children, but who do not earn enough to meet their child support responsibilities. The President's Welfare-to-Work reauthorization proposal will help such fathers increase their employment so they can better support their children. And for the majority of non-custodial parents who do not voluntarily meet their responsibilities, routine enforcement tools like wage withholding or license revocation will be sufficient to induce them to pay their financial obligation.

However, for a small minority of cases, even tougher enforcement penalties must be imposed. These are the most flagrant cases, where people have the resources to pay but willfully refuse to provide support for their children. These are individuals for whom there can be no sympathy. And on behalf of their children, we are redoubling our efforts to locate them. And on behalf of all children, a public message needs to be sent about these parents.

The Child Support Recovery Act of 1992 made it a Federal crime to willfully fail to pay a past-due child support obligation for a child living in another state. In 1996, President Clinton proposed to make it a felony to cross state lines to avoid paying child support and last year, Congress passed and President Clinton signed into law the Deadbeat Parents Punishment Act of 1998. The Act creates two new categories of felonies, with penalties of up to two years in prison: (1) traveling across state or country lines with the intent to evade child support payments if the child support obligation has remained unpaid for a period longer than one year or is greater than $5,000; and (2) when the child support obligation has remained unpaid for a period of longer than two years, or is greater than $10,000, willful failure to pay child support to a child residing in another state.

Project Save Our Children

Our newest initiative, Project Save Our Children, is targeted at this small but reprehensible group of parents who over long periods of time willfully fail to take responsibility for their children. By prosecuting parents who have been ordered to pay support but will not do so, we are sending a pointed message of responsibility to them and helping to give their children a better chance in life.

Under this initiative HHS will launch task forces in 17 states (California, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, and Washington) and the District of Columbia. State child support offices will refer their most serious delinquent child support cases to these sites, where trained investigative staff will locate the violator, document information needed for prosecution, and then provide the investigated case to the appropriate prosecutor.

The new teams are based on a model project in Columbus, Ohio, launched last summer. The Midwest law enforcement task force, formed by the HHS Office of Child Support Enforcement and HHS Inspector General’s Office, joined with Justice Department prosecutors and investigators, state child support agencies, and local law enforcement officials to coordinate efforts in a new investigative team, with promising results so far. To date, 405 cases have been received and 311 of them have been referred to the investigative units, with 196 arrests being made. More than $3.6 million in overdue support has been ordered.

The first task force covers three states: Illinois, Michigan and Ohio. The hub or this task force is an investigative unit located in Columbus, Ohio, that employs a number of sophisticated automated information systems and data bases (both government and commercial), the purpose of which is to locate non-payers and their assets. Four more hub sites, covering 14 additional States and the District of Columbia, will be operational by the end of the first year. My colleague here from the HHS Office of Inspector General will tell you more about the task force operations.

But suffice it to say, with this initiativeBut suffice it to say, we will identify, investigate, and, when warranted, prosecute flagrant, delinquent child support offenders, and collect all outstanding payments. Our goal is a nationwide, comprehensive, coordinated Health and Human Services/Justice Department response to unresolved interstate and intrastate child support enforcement cases alike.

To help accomplish this, the Administration has proposed additional spending in the FY 2000 budget request. This money will pay for establishing investigative teams in five regions of the country to identify, analyze, and investigate cases for prosecution. Also the President's FY 2000 budget proposes additional Justice Department resources for legal support personnel in the U.S. Attorneys offices, which will allow increase prosecutions of deadbeat parents.

Let me re-emphasize that this effort deals primarily with the most serious and flagrant delinquent child support cases. It is an effort to work with our state and local partners in a new, more vigorous manner. Our intent is to take vigorous action to let everyone know that no one is above the law when it comes to supporting their children.

We are in the beginning stages of an initiative that we feel has great promise and are moving toward broader implementation. My colleague from the Office of the Inspector General will provide you with more detail on the results we have obtained thus far.