Voices on child support
Ron Haskins
Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution; former Majority Staff Director, House Ways and Means Human Resources Subcommittee (1995-2000)
The exact words were found in the primary source linked below (testimony, book page, report or article), at the page given.
"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."
Source
Testimony of Ron Haskins before the Subcommittee on Human Resources, Committee on Ways and Means, U.S. House of Representatives, Brookings Institution, 2001-06-28, p. 5 (PDF p. 5) (testimony). Checked 2026-10-13.
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.
The passage it comes from
A final word is in order about poor fathers and child support enforcement. In testimony before this Subcommittee, several leaders of fatherhood programs have pointed out how much difficulty poor fathers have with child support arrearages. Program operators have found that as they work with young fathers to encourage contact with their children and the payment of child support on a regular basis, many of them have built up arrearages of several thousand dollars. Some young fathers under the age of 20, who have been employed only sporadically, owe thousands in past-due support. 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. Let me be clear that I am not recommending any statutory amendments that would forgive child support arrearages. Such a provision would be too controversial and might even seem to represent a step backward in Congress's long campaign to build a strong child support program. Rather, I believe this Subcommittee should encourage Secretary Thompson and his staff to provide national leadership in convincing state and local child support programs to work cooperatively with mothers and fathers to temporarily suspend arrearages as long as fathers make regular payments on current support.
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