From The El Paso Times, 11/29/05:
http://www.elpasotimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051129/NEWS/511290353/1001
Proposed cuts could slice child support
Brandi Grissom
Austin Bureau
AUSTIN --
One million Texas children, including more than 38,000 in El Paso,
could lose child support if Congress approves proposed federal budget
cuts, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said Monday.
"The proposed federal budget cuts take food off the tables and clothes
off the backs of Texas children," Abbott said.
With a growing federal budget deficit and mounting bills for the war
in Iraq and hurricane recovery efforts, Congress is trying to cut
spending.
This month, the U.S. House approved cutting $50 billion from the
federal budget by 2010, including $4.9 billion for child support
enforcement.
If the Senate agrees to the cuts, Abbott said his child support
enforcement offices, which collected $1.8 billion in 2005, stand to
lose up to 16 percent in funding over four years.
The Senate budget bill trims the budget by about $35 billion and does
not include the child support cuts.
A conference committee of House and Senate members will work out a
compromise version of the bill.
Abbott's office is responsible for child support enforcement statewide
and has a $230 million yearly budget for the program.
The proposed budget cuts would mean a 50-percent reduction in staff
and could result in a $3 billion drop in child support collections by
2010, Abbott said.
In a letter to the Texas congressional delegation Monday, Abbott urged
opposition to the child support enforcement cuts.
He said the cuts would result in more federal spending, as single
parents lacking child support would be forced to stay on or return to
welfare rolls.
In Texas, Abbott said, the cuts to child support enforcement would
cause a $1.85 billion increase for programs such as food stamps and
Medicaid.
"It would just be a complete reversal of what we've been trying to do
in the last 10 to 20 years," said Terry Pasqualone, executive director
of the El Paso County Domestic Relations Office.
In El Paso, the cuts would dramatically affect the probation program,
said Kristina Voorhies, chief of child support enforcement in the
Domestic Relations Office.
Federal funds cover 66 percent of the cost to supervise child support
evaders and make sure they pay each month.
The proposal would cut the federal portion to 50 percent.
That would mean substantially increased caseloads for probation
officers, which would render them "meaningless," Voorhies said.
"There are thousands and thousands of people who have gotten off of
welfare because they got their child support," she said.
"It's a really stupid place to cut money."
About 900 people are on probation for not paying child support in El
Paso.
Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-El Paso, said the proposed cut would deprive
single parents of tools they need to get their lives back on track.
"I did not support this bill, which certainly does not have the best
interests of our children and working families in mind, and will work
to try to undo these cuts," Reyes said in a written statement.
Abbott has a Republican ally in his predecessor, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn
of Texas, who in a speech on the Senate floor said the proposal to cut
child support enforcement spending makes "no sense whatsoever."
Cornyn spokesman Don Stewart said the senator plans to send a letter
to the conference committee members, calling on them to reject cuts to
the child support program.
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The children can go to hell. We gotta have those tax cuts for the rich
Harry
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