CS Action Alert

[MYSONSDAD]

E-mail newsletter from Congressman Marsha Blackburn,
found they are very close to passing what looks like a major
improvement to incentives to states for their CS programs:

>Child Support Enforcement. Savings of $4.899 billion in 2006-10.
Makes
changes to Child Support Enforcement, some of which cost money by
increasing the amount of collections which are passed through to the
custodial parents. Two changes result in substantial savings. Those
are
eliminating the federal match when states spend CSE incentive
payments,
saving $1.6 billion; and phasing in a reduction in the federal
matching rate
for administrative expenses from 66% to 50%, which saves $3.8
billion.  
Rep. Blackburn

The bill this is contained in is called the "Deficit Reduction Act of
2005".  The rest of the bill isn't related to family law, but it
looks
good too.  This would be a great time to contact your congressman or
woman, and ask them to support this legislation, and also to
completely
defund VAWA which is a waste of about a billion dollars a year.

Contact your federal representative:
http://www.house.gov/

"Children learn what they live"

[oklahoma]

Interesting.... I just received an email today addressing federal cuts to state child support enforcement--can only assume it is the same bill--but in the letter I received, the bill was called "devastating" to IV-D program.  This is how our state section chair described it:

The IV-D program "provides a valuable service to parents whether they receive or pay child support.  Without the IV-D program, in many cases, modifications to child support that need to be made would not be made and uncollected child support, particularly if the obligor lives in another state, would not be collected.  The IV-D program is an important resource in helping clients and their children to take full advantage of the judgments that their attorneys have secured for them."

I tend to lean more towards support of the cuts--IV-D has not done anything good for our family, certainly not an "important resource," except in wreaking havoc.  But it's always good to look at both sides.