Ensuring Children Receive Support Act

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the Ensuring Children Receive Support Act, which I am proud to co-lead with Representative Van Duyne. I thank her for her leadership and thank the chairman for pushing this bill forward with overwhelming support out of the Ways and Means Committee onto the House floor for this vote.

This bill would expand the existing bipartisan legislation and the universal commonsense values of taking care of our children.

It addresses the somber issue when it comes to the services and protections that we can provide for children.

We all know that parenthood is a privilege, but it is also a serious responsibility. Unfortunately, nationwide, there is more than $115 billion owed in child support arrears. As of fiscal year 2024, there were more than 8.7 million parents who hadn't made a payment in over 5 years.

In 1996, Congress, in a bipartisan fashion, gave the State Department the authority to withhold passports and passport renewals from someone with unpaid child support. That is called the passport denial program. That program collects about $30 million a year in outstanding child support debt, but this is out of about $30 billion that we collect each year in total child support payments.

That means that the vast majority of child support goes uncollected, single parents struggle, and, unfortunately, that means that, at times, children can go hungry.

I believe we should be doing everything we can to close this gap and ensure child support is making it to the children who need it the most. The Ensuring Children Receive Support Act is part of that effort.

It is legislation that builds on the existing law that I talked about by rescinding passports when someone is more than $2,500 in arrears for child support. When you don't pay, you must stay.

Under this bill, people would get a notice that their case is being referred to the State Department. However, if necessary, there would be emergency passports if they urgently need to travel while in arrears. Moreover, they would also be eligible to have their passports reinstated once they pay their child support.

With this bill, we are ensuring that the Federal Government plays its part to meet the urgency that so many single parents feel and finds practical solutions to ensure that child support gets paid.

Mr. Speaker, I urge the House to pass this commonsense, bipartisan legislation. The majority of child support, as we have heard, goes uncollected. Today, we have a chance to do something about it.

The Ensuring Children Receive Support Act would expand existing bipartisan policy to ensure the law is enforced and children receive the support that they need.

Representative Van Duyne understands that. I thank her for her leadership on this bill because a vote for this legislation is a vote to support children, and ultimately, it supports families.

Mr. Speaker, I urge a ``yes'' vote, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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