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Statement of Representative Evelyn Lynn
Florida House of Representatives

On behalf of the National Conference of State Legislatures
Regarding Fatherhood Initiatives

Before the Subcommittee on Social Security & Family Policy
U.S. Senate Committee on Finance

July 25, 2000

 Mr. Chairman and Members of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee Subcommittee on Social Security and Family Policy, I am State Representative Evelyn Lynn of Daytona Beach, Florida. I appear before you today on behalf of the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL). I currently serve on the Executive Committee of NCSL and am an active member of NCSL's Advisory Committee on Nurturing Responsible Fatherhood.

Mr. Chairman, the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) believes in the importance of having a father involved in the life of every child. NCSL supports policies that nurture responsible families. Any policies regarding the role of parents must take into account that all families are not intact and stable. We believe that children deserve two involved parents. To that end, state legislators have an interest in policies that support intact families, encourage marriage and provide opportunities for fragile and fractured families to parent their children together. NCSL recognizes efforts to salvage some relationships may not be appropriate and there needs to be special awareness of the prevalence of domestic violence and abuse. We support efforts to assist parents with parenting skills, even in the absence of marriage, in order to have as stable a support system for the children involved as possible.

Mr. Chairman, we believe that the federal government should support these efforts through flexible funding and technical assistance, not federal mandates. In my testimony today, I will focus on the efforts of Florida and my colleagues in state legislatures around the country and make recommendations for federal action that would supplement these efforts.

State lawmakers support policies that encourage the formation of two parent households. Many single parents are successful in raising children in a single parent household. However, there is growing evidence that children who grow up with two involved parents are less likely to be poor, less likely to have contact with the criminal justice system, and less likely to become teen parents. However, these children are more likely to graduate from high school. Children need a strong family bond and support system, including the positive influence of fathers even when they do not live in the home, to help them become successful adults.

Because mothers and children are leaving the welfare rolls due to employment, sanctions and time limits, it is vital that these families have access to the emotional and financial contributions that fathers can make. The child support system lacks the tools to distinguish between those who have financial resources to pay child support and those who have little or no available resources. Some state policies are now reaching out to these dead broke dads and sorting them out from deadbeat dads.

As a member of the Florida State legislature, I helped craft legislation that established Florida's Commission on Responsible Fatherhood. We realized that something had to be done to respond to the fact that 30% of Florida's children do not live in the same home as their father. For the last four years, the Florida legislature has committed support and funding to this comprehensive statewide strategy. By establishing the Commission, Florida recognized the need for advocacy on behalf of fathers, research to inform our legislative effort, and outreach programs to increase father participation, involvement and employment. The Commission includes members of the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government and the public. I serve on the Commission.

We fund Florida's Commission on Responsible Fatherhood each year with $1 million in Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) block grant funds and $250,000 each from our Department of Children and Families and our Department of Health. The Commission's purpose is to raise awareness of the problems created when a child grows up without a father, identify obstacles that prevent the involvement of responsible fathers in the lives of their children and identify and fund strategies that are successful in encouraging responsible fatherhood. Since 1996, we have funded 27 programs serving fathers in over 30 counties including five intensive service delivery programs serving fathers at day care centers, hospitals and prisons and five job placement and parent education programs to assist low-income, non-custodial fathers obtain employment, pay child support and become better dads.

Florida is by no means alone in this effort. Connecticut lawmakers embarked on a similar path in 1999, by passing legislation that requires state agencies to conduct an assessment of how their policies affect low-income fathers and creates a task force to develop an action plan for service delivery that includes the needs of fathers. Georgia uses the child support enforcement system to bring unemployed fathers who are behind in child support payments into job training programs operated by local community colleges. Title XX Social Services Block Grant is used to support Georgia's program.

Many other states feature model programs with strategies to improving a father's ability to become an involved and contributing parent, both emotionally and financially:

• Building services to help fathers. Developing and providing services to low-income fathers is a relatively new concept since most employment and family-related services available to low-income persons are directed toward women. Programs in California, Maryland, Missouri, Indiana and Georgia help fathers get jobs, keep jobs and pay continuous child support.
• Prevention and planning for fatherhood. Efforts in California, Maryland, Louisiana, North Carolina and Kentucky help focus on the male's role in pregnancy prevention.
• Financing fatherhood programs. Arizona, California, Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia and Florida have approved appropriations for fatherhood initiatives.
• Incarcerated fathers and their children. States such as Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Vermont and Connecticut are successfully implementing programs to help jailed fathers connect with their children. North Carolina, Colorado and Illinois are beginning to link job assessment and training, child support and community support systems to the inmates who are entering the pre-release and released phases of their sentence.

Mr. Chairman, the NCSL Advisory Committee on Responsible Fatherhood just completed "Connecting Low-Income Fathers and Families: A Guide to Practical Policies". The Senate Finance Committee staff has distributed copies to your offices and I have additional copies with me this afternoon. The Guide highlights state programs and policies that support low-income dads as a means of giving them back their self-esteem, their independence, their manhood and their role as a responsible father. The Guide presents a thorough source of information and research on fathers and their role in children's lives.

It is critical that there be a concerted effort at the Federal level to address the needs of low income non-custodial parents.

Mr. Chairman, I urge you to give every consideration and strong support to funding a national fatherhood initiative that would fortify what our states are trying hard to accomplish.

NCSL believes that a new federal fatherhood program should:

1. Provide funds to all states on a formula basis. Federal funds must be coordinated with our state efforts;
2. Ensure state legislative authority (often referred to as the "Brown amendment"). Much of the state work on fatherhood has involved state laws and budgetmaking decisions. Just like the TANF block grant, Welfare-to-Work Program, Workforce Investment Act, and Child Care Block Grant, in order to secure NCSL's support, there must be language ensuring state legislative authority to appropriate these funds through the budget process. This allows for an open discussion of state priorities;
3. Count state contributions to fatherhood toward their state MOE requirements under the 1996 welfare law. While this is already allowed, there is still much confusion in the regional offices and in the states about the use of MOE for fatherhood programs;
4. Provide states flexibility in determining eligibility of program participants;
5. Provide state flexibility to create or support programs at the local level;
6. Encourage collaboration on the state and local level;
7. And provide states the opportunity to use government, non-profit or faith-based providers as the state determines best fits the needs of their communities. While we ask for this flexibility we recognize that you would ask us to be accountable through evaluation.

Only 18% of welfare recipients receive any type of continuous child support payment although states have recently sought to aggressively improve collection by employing a variety of strategies. Poor fathers have a difficult time keeping up with child support payments, and there is evidence that these fathers are unable, not unwilling to pay. These fathers try to provide some informal support directly to the mothers of these children. These fathers often have not completed high school, have a sporadic work history, and may have an arrest record. Low-income fathers were often raised without fathers of their own and do not have role models for parenting.

NCSL believes that supporting efforts to help low-income fathers be better parents and providers will result in increased financial support and stronger connections with their children. Improving the employment prospects for non-custodial parents is essential so parents will provide regular, on-going cash support to their children. 42% of families who have left welfare derive 30% of their income from child support. Child support enforcement is a critical component for the long-term success of welfare reform as the combination of earnings and child support makes low-income families self-sufficient.

However, federal child support policy can be a barrier to improving the payment of support by low-income non-custodial parents. NCSL supports federal legislation that lifts the barriers to states choosing to implement pass-through of child support payments directly to families. Currently federal law requires that state pay not only the state share of collected child support, but reimburse the federal government for its share if the state chooses to pass-through to families. NCSL strongly supports a change in federal law that eliminates the requirement that states reimburse the federal government if the state chooses to pass-through child support to families.

Mr. Chairman, we would support a new federal option for states to change distribution rules and pass through child support to parents currently receiving TANF and arrearages to parents who have left TANF and are working. It is critical, however, that this be a real option -- the federal government must share in the cost of passing through child support and not require states to pay both federal and state costs. We would oppose efforts to mandate changes in pass through and distribution policy at this time. Sixteen states finance their child support systems with child support collections. They would be particularly hard hit by a mandate. However, the mandate would affect all states financially and would require systems changes. States have been grappling with the costs and administrative burden of the 1996 child support mandates in the welfare law. Another mandate at this time would be especially burdensome.

NCSL also asks the federal government to provide states with MOE credit if states choose to pass-through child support to families.

We also urge the federal government to provide assistance to the states on the usage of current policy toward compromising of arrearage. These arrearages are often barriers to participation in fatherhood programs and to family reunification and marriage.

The federal government should clarify and provide state technical assistance regarding the current options for states to deal with child support arrears owed by an absent parent who later married or remarried the custodial parent, a non-custodial parent living in the household, or parents in fragile families.

One of the four goals of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996 is to encourage the formation and maintenance of two parent families. States like Florida are now using federal Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) block grant funds and state Maintenance of Effort (MOE) funds to create fatherhood programs including education and training, employment assistance, anger management, peer support, parenting classes, relationship building and marriage skills. However, until HHS issued final regulations in April,1999, states were concerned that serving low-income non-custodial fathers with TANF funds would impact the time limits of the custodial mother and child.

Mr. Chairman, the federal government should clarify and provide technical assistance to the states regarding the usage of TANF and MOE funds for fatherhood programs.

On behalf of the National Conference of State Legislatures, thank you for consideration of my remarks. I would be happy to answer any questions you may have.

For more information regarding this testimony or NCSL's policy on fatherhood please contact Sheri Steisel at (202) 624-5400.

For more information on or to obtain a copy of the publication, "Connecting Low-Income Fathers and Families: A Guide to Practical Policies," please contact Jack Tweedie at (303) 364-7700.