Number: RL32875
Title: The Child Support Enforcement Program: A Review of the Data
Authors: Carmen Solomon-Fears, Domestic Social Policy Division 
Abstract: For the past 20 years (since the 1984 Amendments), the CSE program and major changes or modifications to it have consistently had bipartisan congressional support. Child support proposals that were introduced in the 106th, 107th, and 108th Congresses, and that have been reintroduced in the 109th Congress, seek to fully implement a "family first" policy by ensuring that more of the child support collected on behalf of TANF families go to the family, and that all of the child support collected on behalf of former-TANF families go to the family. In addition, the proposed legislation has included additional child support collection methods/enforcement techniques to ensure that noncustodial parents of all children are made to be financially responsible for their children. These CSE proposals are broadly supported but generally have been incorporated into the controversial welfare reauthorization legislation, and therefore have not yet passed both houses of Congress.
Pages: 42
Date: April 21, 2005