Title IV-D of the Social Security Act created the federal-state child support program in 1975. Recovering the cost of welfare paid to families was part of its purpose from the start. This page collects what the people who wrote, ran, judged and studied the program have said about that purpose - including whether it has drifted toward revenue and debt collection, and the strongest replies from people who defend it. Each quote says where it came from and what the speaker was addressing.
18 quotes (17 verified, 0 paraphrase, 1 attributed - unverified)
and 12 video clips. Reviewed 2026-10-13. Every item has its own link
and share image. General information, not legal advice.
The exact words were found in the primary source linked below (testimony, book page, report or article), at the page given.
Paraphrase
A summary of what the speaker said, in our words. It is not a quotation; the source linked below is where they said it.
Attributed - unverified
Someone else attributes these words to the speaker, but we could not find them in any primary source. Do not cite them as a quotation.
A quote is only as fair as its context, so each one says what the speaker was addressing,
and the list includes people who defend the program as well as people who criticize it.
"When we started the child support program way back in the 1970's, the main idea was cost recovery. We were trying to reimburse taxpayers for paying for welfare. That is still a worthy idea, but since then, our welfare system has changed dramatically, and now we emphasize to a great extent people becoming independent of welfare."
Ron Haskins, Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution; former Majority Staff Director, House Ways and Means Human Resources Subcommittee (1995-2000)
Context: Oral testimony at a House Ways and Means Human Resources Subcommittee hearing on child support and fatherhood proposals during welfare-reform reauthorization. Haskins was listing three child support issues for the subcommittee; the first, 'who gets the money,' concerned distributing more collections (including arrearages) to families who had left welfare rather than retaining them to reimburse government.
Open this quotehttps://mybmd.org/fyi/voices-on-child-support/haskins-2001-hearing-oral-cost-recovery/
Attributed - unverifiedCritique
"The child support system has morphed from a safety net for children into a revenue-generating machine for states"
Ron Haskins, Senior Fellow Emeritus, Brookings Institution (no role is given on the graphic)
Context: This wording circulates on an advocacy graphic credited to StlMarkLudwig.com. We could not find it in any Haskins testimony, article, book excerpt or transcribed interview, or anywhere else on the web, and the graphic itself was not on the site when we checked. What Haskins is on the record saying is close in subject but different in substance: that cost recovery was the program's original idea, that retained welfare collections helped finance state programs, and that more collected support should go to families. Read his verified statements below rather than citing this one.
Open this quotehttps://mybmd.org/fyi/voices-on-child-support/haskins-graphic-attribution/
VerifiedBackground
"The average state receives about 30 percent of the funds necessary to run its child support program from retained collections in welfare cases and former welfare cases. In the case of current welfare cases, states keep virtually 100 percent of child support collections in exchange for taxpayer-provided welfare benefits."
Ron Haskins, Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution; former Majority Staff Director, House Ways and Means Human Resources Subcommittee (1995-2000)
Context: Written testimony on child support financing. Haskins presented retained welfare-case collections as a shrinking funding source for state child support programs (not as a profit), warning that falling welfare caseloads would push many state programs toward a financing crisis and that state and/or federal governments would need to spend more.
Open this quotehttps://mybmd.org/fyi/voices-on-child-support/haskins-2001-testimony-state-financing/
VerifiedReform proposal
"These arrearages serve as a disincentive for fathers to seek employment and to establish, often for the first time, a pattern of routine child support payments. Something must be done about these big arrearages."
Ron Haskins, Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution; former Majority Staff Director, House Ways and Means Human Resources Subcommittee (1995-2000)
Context: Written testimony on poor fathers and child support arrears. In the very next paragraph Haskins says he is NOT recommending statutory forgiveness of arrears; he proposes that states work with parents to temporarily suspend arrearages while fathers pay current support. Surrounding includes both paragraphs.
Open this quotehttps://mybmd.org/fyi/voices-on-child-support/haskins-2001-testimony-arrearages-disincentive/
VerifiedCritique
"Meanwhile, the major favor the welfare law did for fathers was to pursue them ever more relentlessly for child-support payments. In fact, the law may have intensified the already substantial problems faced by poor fathers."
Context: Ten-year retrospective commentary on the 1996 welfare law. Haskins credits the law with gains for mothers and children, says poor fathers got mostly 'sticks,' and proposes suspending accumulated child-support debt for young men who take jobs and pay current support, plus an EITC-style credit for low-income single men.
Open this quotehttps://mybmd.org/fyi/voices-on-child-support/haskins-2006-brookings-relentless-pursuit/
VerifiedCritique
"Although these strong child support reforms were fully justified, the combination of doing little or nothing to help poor fathers work while squeezing them relentlessly for child support payments drove many of them underground."
Context: State-legislative testimony supporting a Maryland bill (Rosenberg/Kaiser, referred to as Bill 534) to create a state EITC for low-income noncustodial fathers who are current on child support. Haskins defends the 1996 enforcement reforms as justified while arguing that pairing them with no work help for poor fathers had harmful effects.
Open this quotehttps://mybmd.org/fyi/voices-on-child-support/haskins-2007-maryland-testimony-squeezing/
VerifiedReform proposal
"I don't think anyone thinks it's double dipping, especially because one of the major goals is to get more money to the mother so she can stay off welfare."
Ron Haskins, Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution (quoted by a reporter)
Context: Quoted by a reporter (not Haskins' own writing) in a news article on states retaining child support collected for current/former welfare families to reimburse welfare costs. Haskins was rejecting the older 'double dipping' argument against passing collections through to mothers; he named cost to federal and state governments as the main obstacle to change.
Open this quotehttps://mybmd.org/fyi/voices-on-child-support/haskins-2007-nyt-double-dipping/
VerifiedReform proposal
"Given the time-limited nature of cash assistance, the benefits to government of retaining child support are also quite limited. In contrast, the benefits to children of establishing paternity and setting a pattern of child support payments are potentially more enduring."
Daniel R. Meyer and Maria Cancian, Principal Investigators, W-2 Child Support Demonstration Evaluation, Institute for Research on Poverty, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Context: Findings from Wisconsin's random-assignment test of passing all child support through to W-2 (welfare) families. The authors found modest increases in fathers paying and no difference in overall government costs, and concluded a full pass-through is "worthy of serious consideration by other states"; they also acknowledge the no-pass-through policy generates short-run revenue.
Open this quotehttps://mybmd.org/fyi/voices-on-child-support/meyer-cancian-2001-pass-through/
VerifiedCritique
"Yet child support rules that emphasize welfare cost recovery discourage low-income fathers from paying child support and staying connected to their children."
Vicki Turetsky, Senior Staff Attorney, Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP)
Context: Testimony supporting child support distribution provisions sponsored by Sen. Olympia Snowe during TANF reauthorization (paying more collected support to families). Turetsky also testified that regular child support is linked to improved child outcomes. She later served as OCSE Commissioner (2009-2017).
Open this quotehttps://mybmd.org/fyi/voices-on-child-support/turetsky-2002-cost-recovery-distribution/
VerifiedCritique
"The reason we estimate that less than half of the arrears will be collected over 10 years is because so much of the arrears are owed by obligors with no or low reported income."
Elaine Sorensen, Liliana Sousa and Simon Schaner, Researchers, The Urban Institute (report prepared under contract for HHS ASPE and the Office of Child Support Enforcement)
Context: Using administrative data from nine large states matched to national wage records, the authors estimated that about 40 percent of arrears in seven study states would be collected over 10 years. The report recommends arrears-management strategies (realistic orders, interest policy review, compromise programs) and notes that some reported-low-income obligors may have unreported income or assets.
Open this quotehttps://mybmd.org/fyi/voices-on-child-support/sorensen-2007-arrears-collectibility/
VerifiedCritique
"The government's fiscal interests are in direct conflict with the best interests of the children--the controlling legal standard in child support matters."
Daniel L. Hatcher, Assistant Professor of Law, University of Baltimore School of Law
Context: Law review article on TANF assignment of support rights and welfare cost recovery. Hatcher's stated primary conclusion is that welfare cost recovery "is a failed effort--and should therefore end"; the article does not oppose child support for families.
Open this quotehttps://mybmd.org/fyi/voices-on-child-support/hatcher-2007-fiscal-interests-conflict/
VerifiedBackground
"And since 70% of child support arrears nationwide are owed by parents with either no reported income or income of $10,000 per year or less, the issue of ability to pay may arise fairly often."
Justice Stephen G. Breyer, Associate Justice, U.S. Supreme Court, writing for the Court
Context: Writing for a 5-4 majority, Justice Breyer held that the Due Process Clause does not automatically require appointed counsel for an indigent parent facing incarceration in a civil contempt proceeding for unpaid support, but that the State must provide alternative safeguards on ability to pay; Turner's incarceration was vacated. The 70% figure is cited from Sorensen, Sousa & Schaner (2007). The same opinion notes the federal government's view that coercive remedies such as contempt "have a role to play."
Open this quotehttps://mybmd.org/fyi/voices-on-child-support/breyer-2011-turner-ability-to-pay/
VerifiedDefends the program
"When fathers fail in their duty to pay child support, children suffer."
Justice Clarence Thomas, Associate Justice, U.S. Supreme Court, dissenting
Context: From Part III of Justice Thomas's dissent, which only Justice Scalia joined (Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito joined Parts I-B and II only). He argued the majority's due-process balancing ignored the interests of children and custodial mothers, cited state reports that civil contempt is effective when other tools fail, and said whether to threaten incarceration is a policy judgment for lawmakers.
Open this quotehttps://mybmd.org/fyi/voices-on-child-support/thomas-2011-turner-dissent/
VerifiedBackground
"Over the years, CSE has evolved into a multifaceted program. While cost-recovery still remains an important function of the program, its other aspects include service delivery and promotion of self-sufficiency and parental responsibility."
Congressional Research Service, Congressional Research Service report by Carmen Solomon-Fears, Specialist in Social Policy (institutional, nonpartisan)
Child Support Enforcement: Program Basics (RS22380),
Congressional Research Service (copy hosted by University of Maryland Thurgood Marshall Law Library), 2012-11-05, Summary (PDF page 2 of 10; unnumbered).
Context: CRS summary describing the Title IV-D program enacted in 1975. The same summary reports FY2011 collections of $27.3 billion and that the program collected 62% of current support due. CRS reports are institutional and do not take policy positions.
Open this quotehttps://mybmd.org/fyi/voices-on-child-support/crs-2012-program-basics-cost-recovery/
VerifiedDefends the program
"The child support program has evolved over its 40-year existence from a focus on retaining child support to recover welfare costs to a family-centered program."
Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement, Federal agency that runs the Title IV-D program (paper prepared by Elaine Sorensen)
Context: OCSE's own account of the program's purpose shift: it describes the program as one of the largest income-support programs for children and says it relies on "strong enforcement authorities" while serving the whole family. It is an agency self-assessment, not an independent evaluation.
Open this quotehttps://mybmd.org/fyi/voices-on-child-support/ocse-2016-family-centered/
VerifiedDefends the program
"Less than 5 percent of these collections were retained by the government to recoup welfare costs."
Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement, Federal agency that runs the Title IV-D program (paper prepared by Elaine Sorensen)
Context: "These collections" refers to FY 2015 program collections: $32.4 billion total, of which $28.6 billion was collected for children receiving IV-D services and over $3.8 billion was processed through income withholding for limited-service cases. The figure is a national share of current-year collections and does not describe arrears owed to the state.
Open this quotehttps://mybmd.org/fyi/voices-on-child-support/ocse-2016-five-percent-retained/
VerifiedReform proposal
"It is not in children's best interests and counterproductive to have their parents engage in a cycle of nonpayment, illegal income generation, and incarceration."
Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement, Federal agency that runs the Title IV-D program (rule preamble; the agency speaking, not one person)
Context: In the preamble to the 2016 final rule, OCSE explained why it required State guidelines to base orders on the noncustodial parent's actual earnings, income and ability to pay, and limited income imputation. The same rule retains enforcement tools and says civil contempt should be used where cost-effective and consistent with Turner v. Rogers.
Open this quotehttps://mybmd.org/fyi/voices-on-child-support/ocse-2016-final-rule-incarceration-cycle/
VerifiedReform proposal
"Although the original cost recovery function of the child support program has diminished as the TANF caseload has declined, cost recovery policies continue to reduce family income, while discouraging child support payments and increasing the risk of child welfare involvement."
Vicki Turetsky, Independent consultant; former Commissioner, federal Office of Child Support Enforcement/Services (2009-2017)
Context: The same testimony describes the modern program as a family support program that reduces child poverty and calls for orders based on actual income, reduction of unmanageable debt, employment services, and paying all collected support to families rather than using it to recover public assistance costs.
Open this quotehttps://mybmd.org/fyi/voices-on-child-support/turetsky-2023-cost-recovery-family-centered/
Public recordings of hearings, panels and interviews. Each clip opens at the moment the
quoted words are said, and the excerpt is copied from the captions or the official
transcript. The position label describes what the speaker argues in the clip, nothing more:
a clip is only marked as calling to abolish IV-D if the speaker says so.
Calls to abolish IV-D: 0
Restructure the program: 1
Reform specific parts: 8
Defends the system: 3
Rep. Danny K. Davis
Work and Welfare Subcommittee Hearing on Strengthening the Child Support Enforcement Program
Reform specific parts
Rep. Danny K. Davis
House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Work and Welfare hearing, "Strengthening the Child Support Enforcement Program: Status, Challenges, and Opportunities for Modernization" - 2026-01-21
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"We should legislate based on reality and not on the longstanding fictional narrative that non-custodial parents don't want to pay child support. Most non-custodial parents struggling with child support lack good jobs that allow them to pay without being forced into poverty. And they are reluctant to use their limited income to pay support that is not given to their children."
U.S. Representative (D-IL); Ranking Member, Ways and Means Subcommittee on Work and Welfare
Excerpt source: YouTube auto captions
What they argue: Argues nonpayment mostly reflects inability to pay, and urges full pass-through of support to families, an end to charging child support for foster care, and employment services for noncustodial parents.
Open this cliphttps://mybmd.org/fyi/voices-on-child-support/video/davis-2026-fictional-narrative/
Nick Gwyn
Work and Welfare Subcommittee Hearing on Strengthening the Child Support Enforcement Program
Reform specific parts
Nick Gwyn
House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Work and Welfare hearing, "Strengthening the Child Support Enforcement Program: Status, Challenges, and Opportunities for Modernization" - 2026-01-21
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"Many of these families do not receive the child support paid on their behalf. Instead, those payments are kept by the state and split with the federal government as repayment for the family's TANF cash benefits, a policy known as cost recovery. [...] In terms of federal policy, eliminating [TANF] cost recovery entirely is the best option. So all child support is always passed through to families, but there are more incremental steps Congress can take to increase the amount of child support going to children."
Senior Fellow, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities; hearing witness
Excerpt source: YouTube auto captions
What they argue: Says the program is efficient but calls for ending TANF cost recovery (full pass-through), family-first arrears distribution, ending foster-care child support charges, and recognizing inability to pay.
Open this cliphttps://mybmd.org/fyi/voices-on-child-support/video/gwyn-2026-tanf-cost-recovery/
Rep. Darin LaHood
Work and Welfare Subcommittee Hearing on Strengthening the Child Support Enforcement Program
Defends the system
Rep. Darin LaHood
House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Work and Welfare hearing, "Strengthening the Child Support Enforcement Program: Status, Challenges, and Opportunities for Modernization" - 2026-01-21
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"Regular child support payments promote self-sufficiency by helping families avoid reliance on public assistance benefits and can represent a meaningful share of a family's monthly income. In 2024, states collected more than $25 billion in child support payments and served more than 11 million families or 18% of all children in the United States. Among families served, 24% had incomes below the poverty line. The child support program is one of the most effective in the federal government, returning more than $4 for every dollar spent administering it."
U.S. Representative (R-IL-16); Chairman, House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Work and Welfare
Excerpt source: YouTube auto captions
What they argue: Defends the IV-D program as cost-effective and as reducing reliance on public assistance, while calling for modernization (gig/remote work enforcement).
Open this cliphttps://mybmd.org/fyi/voices-on-child-support/video/lahood-2026-most-effective-program/
Ruth Anne Thornton
Work and Welfare Subcommittee Hearing on Strengthening the Child Support Enforcement Program
Defends the system
Ruth Anne Thornton
House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Work and Welfare hearing, "Strengthening the Child Support Enforcement Program: Status, Challenges, and Opportunities for Modernization" - 2026-01-21
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"States like Texas who continue retain collections do so based on the original policy intent which is that when public assistance is provided that the state has a legitimate interest in recovering that. However, as I also mentioned, we've shifted our focus more from being a cost recovery state to avoiding costs."
Director, Child Support Division, Texas Office of the Attorney General; hearing witness
Excerpt source: YouTube auto captions
What they argue: Defends state retention of child support for families on public assistance as a legitimate interest, while describing Texas's shift toward cost avoidance; asks that cooperation requirements be kept if full distribution is adopted.
Open this cliphttps://mybmd.org/fyi/voices-on-child-support/video/thornton-2026-retained-collections/
Vicki Turetsky
Joint Subcommittee Hearing: Strengthening the Child Support Enforcement Program for States & Tribes
Reform specific parts
Vicki Turetsky
Joint hearing of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Work and Welfare and Subcommittee on Oversight, "Strengthening the Child Support Enforcement Program for States and Tribes" - 2023-11-29
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"But the labor market and families have changed since Congress put together the child support program 50 years ago. The main reason for non-payment of child support is the non-custodial parent's ability to pay the full amount ordered, as Representative Davis said. About 25 percent of non-custodial parents are themselves living in poverty and barely scraping by. Some longstanding child support practices have created additional barriers to work and parenting and have caused real harm to children."
Former Commissioner, federal Office of Child Support Enforcement; hearing witness
Excerpt source: official hearing record (govinfo.gov), printed page 6
What they argue: Credits child support with improving child outcomes but says older enforcement practices that ignore ability to pay have harmed children, and backs family-centered practices and debt reduction.
Open this cliphttps://mybmd.org/fyi/voices-on-child-support/video/turetsky-2023-real-harm/
Vicki Turetsky
The limited reach of the child support enforcement system | LIVE STREAM
Reform specific parts
Vicki Turetsky
American Enterprise Institute panel, "The limited reach of the child support enforcement system" (discussion of a paper by Daniel Schroeder) - 2016-12-05
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"Average collections per case are also going up, and they've risen significantly as we've implemented strategies in recent years to improve accuracy of support orders. Uh, they have a history of being too high and not based on on real income of parents. We have done more to engage parents instead of jailing them, and we've connected more parents to employment services."
Commissioner, federal Office of Child Support Enforcement (sitting commissioner at the time)
Excerpt source: YouTube auto captions
What they argue: As sitting federal commissioner, defends program performance as at record levels, while acknowledging orders have historically been set too high and describing a shift from jailing toward right-sized orders and employment services.
Open this cliphttps://mybmd.org/fyi/voices-on-child-support/video/turetsky-2016-aei-orders-too-high/
Charles Smith
The limited reach of the child support enforcement system | LIVE STREAM
Defends the system
Charles Smith
American Enterprise Institute panel, "The limited reach of the child support enforcement system" - 2016-12-05
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"and it started uh as a cost recovery uh program [...] and while it's easy for for us and for some to say that uh the the state should not recover the the [TANF] funds and that those [arrears] should not uh go to the state, um, what we fail to see is that that custodial parent is receiving those [TANF] benefits [...] because often times that non-custodial parent is not paying child support, and so in an essence what's happened is that the taxpayers have stepped up and begin to pay child support uh for that non-custodial parent."
Executive Commissioner, Texas Health and Human Services Commission; former head of the Texas child support division (as introduced on the panel)
Excerpt source: YouTube auto captions
What they argue: Defends welfare cost recovery as reimbursing taxpayers who covered unpaid support, and opposes broad arrears forgiveness as sending the wrong message, while warning against villainizing noncustodial parents.
Open this cliphttps://mybmd.org/fyi/voices-on-child-support/video/smith-2016-aei-cost-recovery/
Rep. Adrienne Hooper Wooten
NOLA 360: When Child Support Becomes a Debtors' Prison
Reform specific parts
Rep. Adrienne Hooper Wooten
Greater New Orleans Foundation / Dillard University Center for Law and Public Interest forum "New Orleans 360: When Child Support Becomes a Debtors' Prison" - 2016-01-12
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"the non-custodial parent often ends up behind bars, setting up a modern-day debtors prison that makes it harder for them to find employment when released. They become a convicted felon often times for being poor. This was the life of Walter Scott, and this is the life of many of our black men today. [...] it's the [dead-broke] dad that's truly destitute who goes to jail over and over for failure to pay support simply because he's poor."
Mississippi State Representative and family law attorney (as introduced)
Excerpt source: YouTube auto captions
What they argue: Argues aggressive enforcement and contempt jailing create a modern debtors' prison for poor fathers, and recommends alternatives such as order modification, fatherhood/problem-solving programs and pausing arrears during incarceration.
Open this cliphttps://mybmd.org/fyi/voices-on-child-support/video/wooten-2016-modern-day-debtors-prison/
Tonya L. Brito
Access to Justice in Family Court | University Place
Reform specific parts
Tonya L. Brito
PBS Wisconsin "University Place" broadcast of a UW-Madison "Wednesday Nite @ the Lab" lecture, "Access to Justice in Family Court" - 2022-02-04
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"I wanna talk about child support enforcement in poor families, because we now know, over 25 years after the welfare reform legislation in 1996, that indeed child support enforcement in poor families has been quite problematic. There is a consensus now that child support enforcement does not operate very effectively for many disadvantaged families. And those families make up about a quarter of the child support caseload. Poor noncustodial parents owe the majority of the child support debt, and relative to nonpoor families, they owe a disproportionate share of it."
Professor, University of Wisconsin Law School
Excerpt source: YouTube manual captions
What they argue: Legal researcher documents how 1980s-90s enforcement reforms that work for steady earners leave poor families with unpaid support and large child support debt (her paper "The Child Support Debt Bubble"); diagnostic critique rather than a specific reform proposal.
Open this cliphttps://mybmd.org/fyi/voices-on-child-support/video/brito-2022-debt-bubble/
Lynne Haney
Lynne Haney: on writing PRISONS OF DEBT
Reform specific parts
Lynne Haney
University of California Press author video (publisher promotional clip for "Prisons of Debt") - 2022-08-04
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"and from those interviews I learned that the average debt for fathers leaving prison was over 36 thousand dollars, and the majority of fathers had also been back to prison or jail because of that child support debt. And I thought, how is this possible? How is it possible that in the contemporary United States, um, parents leave prison with that kind of debt"
Professor of Sociology, New York University; author of Prisons of Debt (2022)
Excerpt source: YouTube auto captions
What they argue: Researcher argues the child support and criminal justice systems have merged into cycles of debt and punishment for incarcerated fathers, and calls for a few concrete policy changes plus systemic change.
Open this cliphttps://mybmd.org/fyi/voices-on-child-support/video/haney-2022-prisons-of-debt/
Sen. Jim Abeler
Driver's License Revocation for nonpayment of child support | Your Legislators 1/26/23
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"It's come up, and I, I don't remember if we've tried to fix it or not. It doesn't really make sense. It was meant to be leveraged so that the deadbeat dad would pay the money that he's just sitting on, and I think it was made in a more simplistic time. I, I think it's a very complex topic, and there's a good many very sincere, if they're, whichever parent it may be, the mom or the dad, who really want to do the right thing, um, but it's challenging for any number of reasons. But then when they lose their license, now they can't even go to work."
Minnesota State Senator (R)
Excerpt source: YouTube auto captions
What they argue: State senator says suspending driver's licenses for child support arrears is counterproductive because parents then cannot work, and that the legislature should look into it.
Open this cliphttps://mybmd.org/fyi/voices-on-child-support/video/abeler-2023-license-revocation/
Mark Ludwig
Fathers Left Behind After Divorce Due to Federal Incentives - Mark Ludwig | American Thought Leaders
Restructure the program
Mark Ludwig
The Epoch Times "American Thought Leaders" interview, recorded at the 48th Phyllis Schlafly Eagle Council (per description) - 2019-10-14
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"hey, if they go after that person they get a lot more credits towards this federal incentive money that they get paid on. [Interviewer: Oh, I see.] So the sad thing is they have stopped chasing these people at all. So the people the program is designed to go after, their -- nobody's even tracking them at all. Instead they're tracing federal dollars, because the more money a state collects, the more incentive [money] they're gonna get from the federal government"
Founder, Americans for Equal Shared Parenting (advocate)
Excerpt source: YouTube auto captions
What they argue: Advocate argues that Title IV-D incentive payments lead states to pursue larger middle-class orders and favor sole-custody arrangements, and wants IV-D returned to its means-tested welfare purpose.
Open this cliphttps://mybmd.org/fyi/voices-on-child-support/video/ludwig-2019-federal-incentives/
How these were checked
A quote is marked Verified only after we downloaded the primary document (hearing record, testimony, court opinion, report, regulation or article), extracted its text, and found the exact words at the page given.
Typographic punctuation is shown in plain ASCII: curly quotes as straight quotes and long dashes as "--". Words are never changed. Line-break hyphenation in PDFs is undone.
Each quote carries the context needed to read it fairly, including where the same speaker supports enforcement or rejects a stronger claim.
Quotes from agencies and the Congressional Research Service are attributed to the institution, not to one person.
Sites that blocked our fetch (congress.gov, crsreports.congress.gov, nytimes.com) are not cited from memory: we used the official govinfo.gov copy, a university mirror, or an Internet Archive snapshot, and say which.
Video clips were confirmed public and playable through YouTube oEmbed, and each excerpt was copied from the captions or the official transcript at the timestamp given.
A clip is labelled as calling to abolish Title IV-D only if the speaker says so in the clip.
The full verification log, with every URL checked and every fetch that failed, is in the BMD repository at docs/fyi-voices-on-child-support-research.md.