December 31, 1998
STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
(Hilton Head, South Carolina)
______________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release December 31, 1998
STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT
Since I became President, my Administration has waged an unprecedented
campaign to make deadbeat parents pay the support their children need and
deserve. Today, we have new evidence that our efforts are working: child
support collections have gone up a record 80 percent since I took office,
from $8 billion in 1992 to an estimated $14.4 billion in 1998. But we must
do more to ensure that each and every parent honors his obligation to his
children. That is why my new budget will propose new funds to help
identify, investigate, and prosecute deadbeat parents. This effort will
include new investigative teams in five regions of the country to identify,
analyze, and investigate cases for criminal prosecution, and an eightfold
increase in legal support personnel to help prosecute these new cases.
With continued commitment and this new funding, we can do even more to
support our nation?s children.
30-30-30
President Clinton Proposes New Child Support Crackdown and
Announces a Record 80 Percent Increase in Child Support Collections
December 31, 1998
Today, President Clinton announced a new child support crackdown aimed
at the nation's most egregious child support violators. Despite record
child support collections, there are still too many parents who
flagrantly ignore their obligations to their children, and the President
will propose to spend $46 million to identify, investigate, and
prosecute these deadbeat parents. The President took this action today
as he released new evidence that his Administration's child support
efforts are working: child support collections have gone up a record 80
percent since he took office, from $8 billion in 1992 to an estimated
$14.4 billion in 1998.
New Record Child Support Collections
Since taking office, President Clinton has made child support
enforcement a top priority, and those efforts are paying off for
children across America. New figures released by the U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services today show that child support collections
have gone up a record 80 percent since the President took office, from
$8 billion in 1992 to an estimated $14.4 billion in 1998. Moreover,
new figures show that the federal government has collected $1.1 billion
this year by withholding federal tax refunds from deadbeat parents.
Nearly 1.3 million families in all 50 states benefited from these tax
refunds, which totaled $151 million in California, $63 million in Ohio,
$52 million in Florida, and $48 million in New York (a state by state
chart is available).
New Child Support Law Enforcement Initiative
To ensure that every parent pays the child support he owes, in June
President Clinton signed into law the Deadbeat Parents Punishment Act,
creating two new categories of federal felonies for the most egregious
child support violators, a measure he had called for in his 1997 State
of the Union address. Many prosecutors say they would be able to
prosecute even more child support cases if they had legal staff
dedicated to the issue and if they received referrals after a complete
financial investigation had been conducted.
New Investigative Resources: Under this new initiative, the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services will establish
investigative teams in five regions of the country to identify,
analyze, and investigate cases for prosecution. These sites,
costing approximately $12 million over five years, will serve 17
states plus D.C., which together have 63 percent of the nation's
child support cases. State child support offices will refer their
most serious child support cases to these sites, where trained
investigative staff will locate the violator, document information
needed for prosecution, and then provide the investigated case to
the appropriate prosecutor. These sites will be based upon a
model law enforcement effort established earlier this year to
serve five states, which in six months has produced an
eighteenfold increase in federal convictions and collections.
New Prosecutorial Resources: To ensure U.S. Attorney's offices
have the skilled legal staff they need to prosecute more deadbeat
parents, the President proposes to provide new funds for legal
support personnel, who will conduct fact finding and
investigations, do legal research, and assist in the drafting of
court papers. The President's new budget will include $34 million
over five years, $5 million in FY 2000 rising to $8 million in
later years, to fund an eightfold increase in legal support staff
dedicated to child support. With this new staff, the U.S.
Department of Justice expects to increase child support
prosecutions significantly.
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