States Scramble to Cover Cuts in Federal Child-Support Enforcement

By Julia Spalding

Published on February 17, 2006

Congress' most recent budget cuts reduce the federal government's share of costs incurred from creative programs designed to collect overdue child-support payments from deadbeat parents. States, which currently collect $4.38 in back payments for every dollar spent on enforcement operations, are now struggling to make up for the loss of funding for thousands of caseworkers as well as legal, administrative and law enforcement staff.

At risk are proven tactics such as wanted posters, highway billboards, subpoenas of cell phone records and offers of reduced payments for parents who volunteer to come forward. Congressional budget-cutters argued that the federal share of the $5.3 billion program is too high and eliminated a so-called double-dipping provision added in 1998. The provision matched incentive payments states receive for improving their programs with additional federal dollars.

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