John Shaw: “the Federal Government now spends nearly half a billion dollars per year providing the States with incentive payments…”

“the Federal Government now spends nearly half a billion dollars per year providing the States with incentive payments for good performance in collecting child support, but the current system has serious deficiencies. The Federal Government provides more than half the incentive money virtually without regard to performance. Even worse, although many States have poor child support programs, current laws allow States to use the incentive payment as a kind of kitty for the State treasury. Thus, money that should be used to improve child support programs is used by some States to build roads and bridges. The new system we are considering today, based on work by the administration, directors of State and child support programs, and a bipartisan coalition headed by the gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Levin] and me, solves both of these problems and more. Under this bill, which was approved unanimously by the Committee on Ways and Means, every penny of the incentive money will be based on performance and States can use the money only on child support activities. The new incentive system created by this legislation is simply one more tool that Congress has enacted to improve the performance of the Federal-State child support program.”