Lynn C. Woolsey: “each year, over $5 billion in child support goes uncollected. This is a national disgrace that is punishing our children…”

“each year, over $5 billion in child support goes uncollected. This is a national disgrace that is punishing our children and bankrupting our welfare system. Mr. Speaker, I know personally just how important child support is because, in 1968, I was a single, working mother who never received a penny in child support. In order to provide my children with the health care and child care they needed, even though I was employed, I was forced to go on welfare to supplement my wages. Today, millions of American families rely on welfare for exactly the same reason. Mr. Speaker, currently, almost 1,500 State and local agencies are charged with collecting child support. Consequently, less than $1 for every $10 owed in interstate child support is collected. A comprehensive welfare reform plan must recognize that the failure to collect child support is not a State-by-State problem, it is a national crisis demanding a national solution. Mr. Speaker, let us make sure that families--families like mine--are not forced to go on welfare because they have not been given the child support they need and deserve. We must insist that child support be front and center in the welfare reform debate.”