Overview

There are currently efforts at the Federal Level to reverse specific provisions of the Budget Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. Some of the provisions include reopening a funding loophole that allowed local child support enforcement agencies to use federal incentive money instead of their own money as matching dollars. This loophole has enabled child support enforcement agencies to grow exponentially by providing more resources than are needed by the agency, shifting focus from aid to needy families to state revenue generation. Normally the state and local child support enforcement agencies would have to use their own dollar bill for obtaining matching funds from the federal government, but if the BDRA is repealed the local child support enforcement office can use a federal dollar instead of a state/local dollar and continue to suck in massive numbers of middle and higher income feuding families at taxpayer expense, leaving the needy families behind to focus on collections from higher income feuding families.

Background Information

The Budget Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 requires that the State or Local Child Support Enforcement Agency use one of their own dollars to obtain two dollars of federal funding. The funding is based on reimbursement of actual expenditures by the State and Local Title IV-D / Child Support Enforcement agencies. The Title IV-D / Child Support Enforcement agencies are the driving factor for the creation of a non-custodial parent and the creation of a child support order. For each case where the State and Local offices succeed there is a reimbursement of 2/3 of all their expenses. In some cases, if the loophole is allowed to be reopened, the State and Local offices will get over 90% of their expenses back allowing them to heavily reinvest in additional programs to break up the family unit.

Action Requested

We want to contact each of the members of the Sub Committee on Income Security and Family Support and let them know that we do not agree with States being able to use the Title IV-D / Child Support Enforcement Program as a tool for State Revenue Generation instead of Aid for Actual Needy Families.

Talking Points - Pod Cast Example of a telephone call.

• The Budget Deficit Reduction Act helped seal a funding loophole that has been abused by the States to generate revenue instead of helping needy children.. Do Not Repeal the Cuts.
• The current child support enforcement program focuses on state revenue generation not aid to actual needy families.
• States should not be allowed to use a federal dollar to obtain additional federal dollars. Do not repeal the Budget Deficit Reduction Act of 2005.
• The various States are using overparticipation with higher income collection participants to drown out the overwhelming failure involved with lower income family collections.
• The majority of Child Support Enforcement collection activities occur in higher income families that should be funding their own child custody disputes instead of using tax payer resources.
• State Child Support Enforcement programs should have increased in efficiency through central collection efforts, which warrants a further reduction in funding.
• There is ample competition in the private sector child support collection industry to make up for any alleged decrease in funding to State collection agencies, do not repeal previous child support cuts.

Facsimile Points (Snail Mail Too!)- (Two fax numbers for nearly every member of the Income Security and Family Support Committee)

• I believe that the current Child Support Enforcement program focuses too much on higher income families that should be funding their own disputes, while drowning out the lower income families that absolutely need the programs.
• Private Child Support Enforcement companies more than fill any gap that is alleged by decreased funding in state child support service programs.
• Overparticipation has shifted the focus of the Child Support Enforcement programs towards revenue generation for state agencies instead of aid to needy families. Keeping the child support cuts in place will help shift the focus of services back to needy families instead of higher income feuding families.

Contact List of the Sub Committee on Income Security and Family Support.

Full Name	REP STATE	Washington Office	City/State	ZIPCODE	DC Telephone	D.C. Fax	Telephone	Fax
Fortney Pete Stark	CA	239 Cannon Building	Washington D.C.	20515	202-225-5065	202-226-3805	510-494-1388	510-494-5852
Artur Davis	AL	208 Cannon H.O.B.	Washington D.C.	20515	202-225-2665	202-226-9567	205-254-1960	205-254-1974
John Lewis	GA	343 Cannon H.O.B.	Washington D.C.	20515	202-225-3801	202-225-0351	404-659-0116	404-331-0947
Michael McNulty	NY	2210 Rayburn H.O.B.	Washington D.C.	20515	202-225-5076	202-225-5077	518-465-0700	518-427-5107
Shelley Berkley	NV	405 Cannon H.O.B.	Washington D.C.	20515	202-225-5965	202-225-3119	702-220-9823	702-220-9841
Chris Van Hollen	MD	1707 Longworth H.O.B.	Washington D.C.	20515	202-225-5341	202-225-0375	301-424-3501	301-424-5992
Kendrick Meek	FL	1039 Longworth H.O.B.	Washington D.C.	20515	202-225-4506	202-226-0777	305-690-5905	305-690-5951
Jerry Weller	IL	108 Cannon H.O.B.	Washington D.C.	20515	202-225-3635	202-225-3521	815-740-2028	815-740-2037
Wally Herger	CA	2268 Rayburn H.O.B.	Washington D.C.	20515	202-225-3076		530-893-8363
Dave Camp	MI	137 Cannon Building	Washington D.C.	20515	202-225-3561	202-225-9679	231-929-4711	231-929-4776
Jon Porter	NV	218 Cannon H.O.B.	Washington D.C.	20515	202-225-3252	202-225-2185	702-387-4941	702-434-1378
Phil English	PA	2332 Rayburn H.O.B.	Washington D.C.	20515	202-225-5406	202-225-3103	724-342-6132	724-342-6219

For questions or concerns regarding this action alert please do not hesitate to contact Lary Holland via email at laryholland@sbcglobal.net or leave a voicemail at 989-764-5920 with your contact information and I will get back to you as soon as possible.