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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Idaho Risks Millions Over Child Support Legislation Tied Up In Strings Attached To Federal Funds

Idaho legislators’ reluctance to take orders from the feds could cost the state $44.3 million for welfare and child-support enforcement.

That federal money now pays for Idaho’s newly reformed welfare program, plus its child-support enforcement program. In Idaho, unpaid child support is the No. 1 reason families go on welfare.

About 2,000 families are on welfare in the state.

“We’ve heard that this is about government getting into fathers’ bank accounts,” Jen Ray of the Idaho Women’s Network told a Boise rally Monday. “We’ve even heard that this is about Big Brother. Make no mistake - this is about children.”

Idaho now is working on more than 70,000 child-support enforcement cases, many involving more than one child.

The state received a formal notice from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Dec. 18 that its plans for spending the federal funds are being disapproved because it hasn’t passed the required legislation.

This is the second year lawmakers have balked at the bills, which do everything from requiring a central registry of child-support cases to allowing enforcement authorities access to bank records to see whether delinquent parents have money in the bank.

“I didn’t like them then - they’re better this year,” said Rep. Jim Clark, R-Hayden, who’s on a subcommittee that’s trying to come up with acceptable, narrowly drawn versions of each bill. “Uncle Sam was telling us to do everything, everything. They were extremely big-government bills.”

Already this year, one bill, requiring Social Security numbers to be listed in all application forms for state licenses, failed on the House floor by two votes. The bank records bill also was rejected by the full House, although a new version is being drafted.

Clark said he’s confident the subcommittee will be able to come up with new versions that will pass. “We’re going to have to convince everybody on the floor that this isn’t big government, this is the least we can do and not lose the money.”

Otherwise, he said, “We’re talking about a $44 million hit.”

Clark chuckled, “These are Republicans that are doing this to us. That’s what’s really funny - these are Republicans at the national level that are writing the laws.”

Idaho’s Legislature is 85 percent Republican.

The Idaho Women’s Network, Idaho Children’s Alliance and Church Women United held a rally on the Statehouse steps Monday to push for passage of the bills. Standing in drizzle and a light but icy breeze, members held placards with slogans including, “Don’t play politics with Idaho children” and “Punish deadbeat parents, not Idaho children.”

Melanie Curtis, a single mother from Boise, said she went 12 years without receiving child support, until the state began garnisheeing her ex-husband’s wages. Now she worries that he’ll change jobs, and “I would have to track him down again.”

She said she was on welfare for several years because of the unpaid support.

“If they fail to pass this legislation, it sends a message that Idaho will soon be a haven for irresponsible parents trying to avoid paying their child support,” Curtis said.

Sharon Van Slyke, Idaho state president of Church Women United, said, “Federal money is our money - not dirty money as some of our Idaho legislators would have us believe.”

Roseanne Hardin of the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare said 37 states have lost part of their funding for failing to comply with specific requirements. So far, no state has had its entire plan disapproved - as Idaho now risks.

Last year, Idaho requested a waiver of the federal Social Securitynumber requirement, but it was refused. “They told us very clearly that they weren’t giving any waivers to any state,” Hardin said.

When the state House first killed the Social Security number bill, Rep. Jeff Alltus, R-Hayden, was among those with objections. Social Security numbers never were intended to become a means of tagging all citizens for identification, Alltus argued.

Clark said lawmakers thought the bill would require the numbers to appear on all licenses, rather than just on application forms. “You could read it that way,” he said.

Subcommittee members made sure that wasn’t the intent, and also went to federal code to see whether the state really is required to get those numbers on all license applications, from driver’s licenses to hunting and fishing licenses.

“We pulled out the code, and guess what, it says that,” Clark said.

“We will make sure that what we present will be the bare requirement of what the federal government is asking for, and nothing more.”

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: LEGISLATING CHILD SUPPORT There are seven bills at issue, two of which have passed the House. The rest still are in committee. The bills are: HB 432, which allows a judge to order a delinquent parent to work in order to earn money to pay child support; and HB 601, which deals with acknowledgment of paternity. Both have passed the House. HB 414, which requires a central registry of all child-support cases. HB 431, which requires Social Security numbers on license applications. The bill failed in the House, but was reconsidered and sent back to committee. It’s intended as another way of locating delinquent parents. HB 462, which changes the time requirement for employers to turn over wages under court orders from 10 days to seven days, and allows employers to be fined if they don’t comply. HB 717, allowing quarterly data matches between child-support enforcement and financial institutions. The bill failed by seven votes in the House, but a new version is being drawn up. HB 725, which allows liens against delinquent parents. The bill was amended so that it no longer complied with the federal requirements; then it was sent back to committee for more work.

This sidebar appeared with the story: LEGISLATING CHILD SUPPORT There are seven bills at issue, two of which have passed the House. The rest still are in committee. The bills are: HB 432, which allows a judge to order a delinquent parent to work in order to earn money to pay child support; and HB 601, which deals with acknowledgment of paternity. Both have passed the House. HB 414, which requires a central registry of all child-support cases. HB 431, which requires Social Security numbers on license applications. The bill failed in the House, but was reconsidered and sent back to committee. It’s intended as another way of locating delinquent parents. HB 462, which changes the time requirement for employers to turn over wages under court orders from 10 days to seven days, and allows employers to be fined if they don’t comply. HB 717, allowing quarterly data matches between child-support enforcement and financial institutions. The bill failed by seven votes in the House, but a new version is being drawn up. HB 725, which allows liens against delinquent parents. The bill was amended so that it no longer complied with the federal requirements; then it was sent back to committee for more work.