U.S. Representative Sandy Levin
12th District of Michigan

(Washington D.C.)- Proposals included in the Republican budget reconciliation would reduce child support payments to families nationwide by $16.8 billion over the next 10 years.  Michigan families would lose $204 million in child support payments in just the next three years.  These figures are drawn from analysis by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) of the Republican proposal scheduled for consideration in the House Ways & Means Committee tomorrow.

“I can't think of a clearer illustration of upside down priorities than Republican plans to take child support from our kids and use it to extend tax cuts for the wealthy,” said Congressman Sander Levin, a member of the Ways and Means Committee.  “Since 1996, we've demonstrated that increased investment in child support collections translates directly into money for children.  Under this bill, we would turn back the clock on progress we've made.”

Under the Republican plan, the federal government would withdraw $3.8 billion in funding to state child support program.   The CBO analysis assumes that states would try to replace some of the federal dollars to keep support flowing to families – if they did not, the loss to families would be even greater.  In Michigan, the state is able to collect $4.05 in child support for families for every $1 of federal investment.  Last year, the child support program helped Michigan families collect about $1.4 billion that was owed to them.

The 1996 welfare reform law substantially changed the federal child support program to decrease the number of parents not supporting their children.  As a result of the more aggressive enforcement, the percentage of child support cases with collections has more than doubled.  An estimated 330,000 families a year were able to move off welfare because they began receiving child support, and over a million children were lifted out of poverty when their parents began paying them child support.

The cuts under consideration by the Ways & Means Committee are intended to raise $7 billion toward the overall House Republican goal of cutting $50 billion from spending programs, which would not offset the $70 billion in tax cuts they plan to consider next week.  Other cuts in the bill would eliminate bonuses states get for finding good jobs for welfare recipients, delay payments to disabled children and adults, and cut funding for the federal foster care program, which provides homes for abused children.

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