Supporting America's Children and Families Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. HERN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in favor of H.R. 9076. I am very pleased that this legislation is coming to the House floor today.

The Supporting America's Children and Families Act includes two pieces of legislation that are important, not just to me, but to my home State of Oklahoma.

The first is the Strengthening State and Tribal Child Support Enforcement Act. This policy finally allows Tribes who run their own child support enforcement programs to access Treasury offset programs. There are 38 federally recognized Tribes in my home State of Oklahoma, 10 of which run their own child support enforcement agencies.

I would highlight this policy has the support of the National Tribal Child Support Association and the National Association of Tribal Child Support Directors.

Not only does this policy help Tribes efficiently run their child support enforcement programs, but States will be allowed to continue to use the third-party contractors to help run their child support enforcement programs. Child support enforcement is not a partisan issue. It is the right thing for Congress to do. Without this fix, we risk States having to bring all child support enforcement services in- house, costing hundreds of millions of dollars, along with the immediate pause of child support programs to millions of families, an absolutely devastating outcome. We cannot let this happen to our families.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to support this piece of legislation to help the children that are growing up to be this country's next generation because it truly is about the children.

This legislation also includes the Tribal Welfare Support Act, which allows child welfare funds from title IV-B to be paid directly to Tribes, reducing the regulatory burden for both States and Tribes.

Right now, child welfare payments are made to Tribes through two different funding allocations, one of which goes through States rather than directly to Tribal guarantees, an outdated and fragmented system that needs to be updated.

The Tribal Child Welfare Support Act modernizes this process so that title IV-B recipients can spend more time helping their children and families, and less time wading through the red tape.

The Supporting America's Children and Families Act passed unanimously out of the Committee on Ways and Means and contains priorities that will help families and children all over this country.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support this piece of legislation today.

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