Lincoln Chafee: “Mr. President, one of the reasons that our welfare costs today are so high is the number of absent deadbeat parents who…”

“Mr. President, one of the reasons that our welfare costs today are so high is the number of absent deadbeat parents who, in spite of a court order, in spite of judicial determination that they owe weekly or monthly child support, still flagrantly refuse to pay child support. This amendment goes a long way, I believe, to help deal with this problem. Let me take just a moment, if I could, to congratulate Senator Dole and to congratulate everyone else who has been directly involved in this bill because the child support enforcement section is a very good section. It was written after consultation with experts in the field, people who deal with this every day out in the 50 States who have to face the problem of trying to track down these deadbeat parents and then after they find them trying to figure out how to get money from them. This particular amendment that I am offering was also based on our consultation with experts in the field, particularly the State of Massachusetts, which has some very, very good success. In fact, this particular amendment was modeled after what Massachusetts is doing. The purpose of this amendment is to make it easier for States to crack down on deadbeat parents.”