Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions - S. 2194

STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS

By Mr. CORNYN (for himself and Mr. LIEBERMAN):

S. 2194. A bill to amend part D of title IV of the Social Security Act to improve the collection of child support, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Finance.

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce a bill that is very close to my heart-the Child Support Improvement Act of 2004. I want to express my appreciation for the leadership of the Senator from Connecticut on these issues, and his willingness to co-sponsor this bill.

In my career, I have had the opportunity to see the significant problems facing our child support system from several different perspectives.

As a district judge in Texas, I ruled in divorce and custody cases. I saw the powerful emotions involved in these cases, where the best interests of children are fought over even as the relationships that brought them into this world fall apart.

And I had to make judgments in a large number of child support cases before Texas implemented the system for expediting these cases by establishing the masters program.

As a Supreme Court justice, I had the opportunity to write opinions that had a real and positive affect on child support.

As Attorney General, I saw the positive effects of enforced guidelines for child support, visitation, and income withholding. I worked to implement Federal mandates. And I saw that we had a deep hole to climb out of, a child support system that was in terrible shape.

My first priority was to improve customer service. I saw that more than $16 million in child support payments were collected but undistributed due to computer errors, leaving those most in need of assistance without their child support payments merely because of computer or administrative problems.

And the vast majority of the people calling the child support offices for assistance were automatically disconnected or received a busy signal. Only one in every seven phone calls was actually answered-one in seven.

We got to work fast. We focused on both the dead beat and the dead broke parents. We fixed the customer service system, establishing eight regional call centers and an interactive web site to provide case-specific information on a secure site for parents to access. We worked with community organizations to establish a dozen fatherhood programs. We got payments out the door more quickly, and we reduced undistributed collections. And I announced a top ten list of "Texas' Most Wanted Child Support Evaders," those dead beat parents who willfully evaded arrest.

In the end, we collected more than $3 billion in child support. Some folks called it a miracle. I call it a good start.

I believe that this body has the responsibility to do more to help our child support system be more efficient, more responsive, and do more to improve the lives of children and families.

The proposal that I am introducing today, along with the distinguished Senator from Connecticut-who has a deep understanding of the issue and, like me, served his State as attorney general-features several long-needed reforms of our child support provisions.

It includes new distribution options for states to get more child support to families on TANF, and to pay more child support to families who were previously on TANF.

This bill also has several provisions based on my experience as Attorney General: 1. It encourages States to do more medical support enforcement, by giving states a funding incentive that will ultimately reduce our Federal Medicaid and S-CHIP costs. 2. It promotes early monitoring of child support orders, cutting red tape so that states have greater freedom to innovate and large arrearages never occur. 3. It focuses on reducing undistributed collections by directing more Federal resources toward finding solutions to this widespread problem. 4. It gets payments to custodial parents quickly, by urging States to use electronic payment methods. 5. And it allows States the option to send all non-IV-D child support payments to the State Disbursement Unit, reducing expenses, paperwork and confusion for employers and accelerating payments to families.

I believe that all of these reforms are necessary and important steps. They will lower costs, increase efficiency, and get children more of the help they need.

Even as we strive to improve our child support system, we cannot underestimate the social importance of the family as a component of our mission. As author Maggie Gallagher once wrote: "When men and women fail to form stable marriages, the first result is a vast expansion of government attempts to cope with the terrible social needs that result. There is scarcely a dollar that state and federal government spends on social programs that is not driven in large part by family fragmentation: crime, poverty, drug abuse, teen pregnancy, school failure, and mental and physical health problems."

I strongly believe that the family is the fundamental institution of our civilization. If fosters successful communities, happier homes, and healthier lives.

The family provides the foundation for raising each new generation of Americans. And when families are weakened, children suffer the most. Even the best child support system in the world cannot give the caring love and nurturing of family-which is why I believe we need to have a child support system that genuinely encourages parents to be an active part of their child's life.

We need a child support system that focuses on the dead beat and dead broke parents, that brings the worst evaders in, and that puts the family first. Let us in this body strive to do everything we can, as we hope for a brighter future for this nation and future generations of American children.