U.S. Representative Sandy Levin
12th District of Michigan
| For Immediate Release February 16, 2006 |
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LEVIN JOINS MOVE TO ENSURE MICHIGAN CHILDREN RECEIVE MONEY OWED TO THEM Levin Co-Sponsors Bill that Would Repeal the Child Support Program Cuts from the Republican Budget Reconciliation Act |
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(Washington D.C.)- U.S. Rep. Sander Levin (D-Royal Oak) today joined colleagues U.S. Rep Jim McDermott of Washington and U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Illinois in introducing a bill that would repeal the child support enforcement cuts that Republicans included in the Deficit Reduction Act.
“It was wrongheaded to cut funding from a program that successfully collects payments to children owed to them,” said U.S. Rep. Levin. “Repealing this one provision in the Republican budget bill will result in an estimated $537 million more in child support collections for Michigan kids over the next 10 years.”
For every $1 dollar the government invests in child support enforcement, over $4 goes directly to children and families.
Michigan child support experts voiced strong opposition to the child support enforcement cuts included in the Republican budget. In a meeting with Congressman Levin, Macomb County child support collections staff told him the cuts would likely force them to lay off staff and not pursue collections in cases where the parents are hard to locate. Michigan currently has one of the most successful child support programs in the nation. Because the cut is targeted at states that receive “incentive payment” bonuses for high collection rates, the cuts will disproportionately impact Michigan.
The “Deficit Reduction Act of 2005” dramatically reduced federal support for child support collection, student loans, and healthcare for children, the elderly, and the disabled. The bill Levin and his colleagues introduced would repeal the cuts to the child support enforcement program from that bill. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has determined that the Republican budget would result in reducing child support collections by $8.4 billion – a reduction of $537 million for the state of Michigan. Across America, 16 million children rely on money collected through enforcement for the most basic necessities of life, like food, clothing and shelter. The Department of Health and Human Services estimates that over 330,000 families were able to move off welfare because of child support after Congress intensified federal child support collection support as part of the 1996 welfare reform law.
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