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March 2004 - Vol. 6, No. 2
State Child Support Bills Would Increase Criminal
Penalties for Nonpayment
Two states are considering legislation that would impose tougher
penalties on noncustodial parents for the nonpayment of child support.
In Alaska, current law makes nonpayment of child support
a misdemeanor with a maximum penalty of 1 year in prison and/or
a $1,000 fine. HB 514 would:
- Make criminal nonpayment of child support a felony punishable
by a sentence of up to five years for a child support debt over
$10,000, or if a parent fails to make a child support payment
for a period of at least two years, or has a previous misdemeanor
conviction.
- Make aiding the nonpayment of child support a felony subject
to the same penalties as nonpayment. Aiding nonpayment could include
withholding information from the child support enforcement agency
or, as an employer, failing to provide information regarding the
availability of health insurance coverage for the parent’s
children.
- Allow Child Support Enforcement Division investigators to be
armed.
The bills were passed out of the state House Judiciary Committee
on February 27.
In Michigan, the House voted 93-13 on March 17 to approve
HB 5369 and other related bills that would:
- Require that parents who owe between $3,000 and $20,000 face
a felony with a penalty of up to five years in prison and a $10,000
fine. The same penalties would apply to parents who have made
no payments for a period of three years.
- Increase the penalty to a maximum of 10 years in prison and
a $15,000 fine if payments have not been made in five years or
if the debt is at least $20,000. Judges are given the option of
exceeding the maximum fine by applying a fine to the parent of
three times the amount owed if this results in a fine that is
over the maximum.
Another bill in the package of child support bills, HB 5371, was
approved 72-33 and would allow courts the option of suspending a
child support order until release when considering an incarcerated
parent's request for a child support modification. In deciding the
modification request for the period of incarceration, and upon the
parent's release, the court could order child support for the period
of incarceration based on pre- or post-incarceration earning capacity.
The bills will now go to the state Senate for consideration.
TANF Reauthorization Taken Up in Senate
The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program was
again extended in its current form for a period of three months
by the Senate last week. The House is also expected to vote for
an extension by March 31, without which TANF will expire. The extension
will give Congress until June 30 to reauthorize TANF. Such short-term
extensions have typically kept the current program in place. However,
Congressman Herger (R-CA), chairman of the House Ways and Means
Committee, has expressed his intent to propose policy changes that
would impose stricter caseload reduction credits and that would
include funding for marriage promotion. Given the tight timeline
to extend the program, these proposals may be dropped
Apart from the short-term TANF extension, the TANF reauthorization
bill is being considered on the Senate floor this week, but many
issues remain unresolved. One key amendment offered by Senators
Snowe (R-ME) and Dodd (D-CT) would add $6 billion in funding to
cover some of the additional child care costs that would result
from increased work requirements.
An excellent way to stay updated daily on reauthorization activities
is to join the poverty list-serv, administered by the NOW Legal
Defense and Education Fund. To join this group, go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/poverty/.
States Will Bear Burden of Shifts in Federal Funding
As Congress considers proposals for social services this session,
many of the proposed changes to current laws and programs would
remove the federal government from its funding and oversight roles.
Two websites are tracking the programs that are most affected by
this shift:
- Block Grants. Many initiatives for low-income families proposed
by the Bush Administration would create block grants while at
the same time reducing federal spending and federal standards
or protections. Block grants are created when federal programs
are funded in one lump sum that is given directly to states with
few restrictions, but with a cap on the funding level. The Coalition
on Human Needs is tracking block grant proposals, and has a regularly-updated
chart that provides concise information on the current structure,
the proposed changes, the status of proposals and their impact,
for each affected program. The programs currently subject to block
grant proposals include Head Start, Unemployment Insurance, Medicaid
and SCHIP, Child Welfare, Section 8 Housing, Transportation (Job
Access and Reverse Commute Program), Food Stamps, and Job Training.
See www.chn.org/pdf/blockgrantgrid.pdf.
- Unfunded Mandates. A recent project of the National Conference
of State Legislatures (NCSL) tracks proposed federal legislation
and its financial impact on states. The Mandate Monitor keeps
tabs on unfunded federal mandates, or federally required services
or policies to be implemented by states that provide no funds
to support the implementation. According to NCSL, the Unfunded
Mandates Reform Act of 1995 has not prevented many forms of unfunded
mandates, which include changes to entitlement programs and the
No Child Left Behind Act. Such mandates are expected to result
in a gap of $34 billion for fiscal year 2005, and cost states
7% of their general revenue funds.
See www.ncsl.org/programs/press/mandatemonitor.pdf.
Census Miscounts Prisoners To Detriment of Urban
Areas
PrisonersoftheCensus.org is a special project of the Prison Policy
Initiative that documents the current practice of using the Census
to count U.S. prisoners as residents of the towns that host prisons
rather than of their actual non-prison residence. Since minorities
and urban residents are overrepresented in prison populations and
prisons are most often located in rural towns, this practice results
in a shift of power and political representation to rural areas
when legislative boundaries are redrawn. The practice is particularly
harmful given the soaring level of incarceration and laws that in
48 states disenfranchise felons. For more information on the website
and project, see www.prisonersofthecensus.org.
Child Support Bill Introduced in Senate
Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) has introduced S.2194, the Child
Support Improvement Act of 2004, co-sponsored by Senator Joseph
Lieberman (D-CT). The bill contains child support provisions, many
of which have been introduced in child support and/or welfare reauthorization
proposals in previous legislative sessions, along with some new
provisions. If TANF is not reauthorized during this session, this
bill could provide a vehicle for child support legislation to proceed
through Congress on its own. The bill would:
- Provide incentives to states to pass through child support payments
made on behalf of families currently receiving welfare. States
could pass through up to $400 in child support paid for one child
and $600 for families with two or more children. If the state
also disregarded the amount of child support passed through to
the family when determining the family’s TANF grant, the
state would not be required to pay the federal government its
share of the collected child support that was passed through.
This pass-through incentive is similar to other child support
proposals previously introduced but not passed, in that states
could not use TANF funds to finance the pass-through. A child
support distribution bill introduced by Senators Snowe (R-ME)
and Kohl (D-WI) last year would have allowed states to use TANF
funds to finance a pass-through.
- Place a ban on the practice of recovering birth costs from
the noncustodial parent when the custodial parent receives Medicaid
benefits to cover the cost of the birth. The ban is consistent
with the recommendations made by the Medical Child Support Working
Group in their June 2000 report on medical support, 21 Million
Children's Health: Our Shared Responsibility. Publications
providing further information on the implications of this policy
are also available on this website.
- Allow the state of Texas to continue its current practice of
automatically monitoring and enforcing child support payments
when the custodial parent is not a recipient of welfare benefits.
The state may do so with or without a written application for
such services from the custodial parent.
- Make changes to the interstate enforcement rules that govern
child support enforcement across state lines.
Federal Foster Care Financing Restrictions Prevent
States from Meeting Federal Performance Criteria
A recent report funded by the Pew Commission examines the results
of a federal review of state child welfare systems. The report,
The Foster Care Straitjacket: Innovation, Federal Financing and
Accountability in State Foster Care Reform, was completed this month
by Fostering Results. Among the findings:
- Every state that was reviewed using criteria established in
Public Law 105-89, The Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997,
failed to achieve compliance on enough indicators to meet the
federally mandated performance expectations.
- On two indicators related to permanence and child well-being,
none of the states were in compliance. States that fall short
of meeting performance targets risk losing a portion of the more
than $4.6 billion in annual federal funding for children in foster
care.
- The inability of states to meet performance criteria is attributed
to the fact that the interventions necessary to do so are often
not financially supported by the federal government in spite of
the criteria being set at the federal level.
- One common set of problems documented by the federal review
was felt to reflect legitimate limitations of child welfare service
delivery: securing timely permanence for children who enter foster
care and minimizing the number of times a child is moved from
placement to placement.
- Federal funding restrictions have prevented states from implementing
service interventions that would help to meet federal standards.
In fact, some of the most promising approaches have required child
welfare jurisdictions to find resources outside of federal funding
for foster care services provided to children removed from their
home.
- States face barriers created by federal financing restrictions
that provide subsidies for adoptions but not for relative caregivers
who could become permanent caregivers but who are reluctant to
adopt because it would require the termination of the parental
rights of a family member. Several states have pursued federal
waivers to test the effect of providing federal subsidies for
permanent guardianship, allowing the transfer of children from
state custody and reducing costs for both state and federal government.
In the absence of a waiver, states are unable to pursue this option.
The report is available at: http://www.fosteringresults.org/.
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