Thursday, March 21, 2002

A story released today by the Associated Press reports that the Bush administration is developing a new program to channel money through the child-support-collection program to promote marriage and the involvement of both parents in the rearing of children.

The new initiative would involve a maximum of about $22 million in federal and state money for about 15 communities, according to two draft documents that describe the plan. Participating states would receive special permission from the government to spend money through their child-support programs for community wide experiments to promote the benefits of marriage, help people develop marriage skills and create media campaigns to "rebuild cultural norms."

Welfare advocates also charge that the administration is trying to bypass Congress in implementing its pro-marriage agenda.

Mr. Horn, a longtime advocate for marriage and fatherhood programs, noted that promoting marriage and discouraging illegitimacy were explicit goals of the 1996 welfare law, and HHS has long had the power to approve demonstration programs such as this one.

"This is not an attempt to circumvent any kind of debate about anything," Mr. Horn said. "The debate about whether government should be involved with this issue at all was resolved five years

ago when Congress passed a [welfare] law and a Democratic president signed it."

While the welfare law gave states power to spend money to promote marriage, few have done so, partly because of a heavier focus on implementing new work requirements.

Critics fear that with limited money, states may wind up diverting funds from child-support payments.

"The primary focus should be getting those kids the support they need, not some half-baked experiment that no one knows whether it will help poor kids or not," said Laurie Rubiner of the National Partnership for Women and Families.