Republicans in the House and Senate have proposed legislation that would reverse an Obama administration rule that would make it easier for parents to skip out on child support payments and force children to rely on federal welfare payments.
Late last year, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued a rule that would require states to relieve non-custodial parents from their child support obligations if they go to prison. It would also let states find other reasons to close some child support cases, which Republicans say would create an incentive for families to tap into more federal benefits, instead of relying on family members.
Republicans complained about the rule when it first came out, and now, with Republicans in control of both the House and the Senate, they hope to pass legislation to stop the rule in its tracks.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., offered legislation this week to block the rule. Both members say the rule is another attempt by Obama to get around Congress and legislate from the White House.
“This was just the latest attempt on the part of the Obama administration to bypass Congress in order to enact policies through executive fiat,” Hatch said on the Senate floor Wednesday.
“Put simply, this latest rule would make it easier for non-custodial parents to evade paying child support,” Hatch said. “It would undermine a key feature of welfare reform, which is that single mothers can avoid welfare if fathers comply with child support orders.”
“I am fundamentally opposed to policies that allow parents to abdicate their responsibilities, which, in turn, results in more families having to go on welfare,” he added.
Last year, Hatch wrote a letter with then-Ways & Means Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., that said the rule is “part of an emerging pattern of executive over-reach relating to issues associated with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, amnesty for undocumented individuals and recent attempts to waive welfare work requirements.”
A House aide noted that Obama’s own budget proposal called for legislation to ease child support payment rules, and that a House Democrat proposed similar legislation. The aide said those proposals indicate that Democrats thought at one point that legislation was needed, and that their goal couldn’t be achieved through a new rule.
The legislation from Hatch and Ryan has a good chance of moving through both the House and Senate, since both members chair the committees with jurisdiction over the bill. However, as of this week, neither committee has scheduled any time to consider the measure.
