Child Support Reinvestment Act of 2005

CHILD SUPPORT REINVESTMENT ACT OF 2005 -- (House of Representatives - May 17, 2005)

(Ms. MATSUI asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)

Ms. MATSUI. Madam Speaker, today I rise to introduce the Child Support Reinvestment Act of 2005. This much-needed bill will provide States, including my home State of California, with important penalty relief, allowing more money to flow where it should: to the children of our State awaiting their past-due child support payments.

California is in the process of developing the largest single statewide automated child support collection system in the country. Although the project initially met with delays, California is now on track to compliance by September 2006.

However, rather than reducing the penalties as California makes progress towards its goal, the Federal penalties actually continue to grow, because the penalties are based on the amount the State invests in child support programs for the previous year. Effectively, we are hurting the very children that the program is trying to help by punishing States for doing their best to get each child the support payments they are owed.

My bill, the Child Support Reinvestment Act, will lower the penalties and allow the money levied in penalty to be used for the benefit of the children instead of the Federal Government's general fund. This is smart regulation for the States.

http://thomas.loc.gov