MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG
Mo. Digital News
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Mo. Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG
Mo. Digital News
Missouri Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Mo. Digital News
MDN.ORG:
Missouri Digital News
JEFFERSON CITY - Missouri's Child Support Enforcement Division would receive broad new authority under a federal mandate bill passed by a state House committee Thursday. But the extent of the authority that would be granted to enforce child-support payments has some lawmakers worried.
Rep. Marilyn Edwards, R-House Springs, said she has heard from several men who have been told they must continue to pay their support despite drastic change in circumstances, such as losing their job.
Teresa Kaiser, director of the Child Support Enforcement Division, conceded her agency historically has been too hard on fathers, but said the division is improving.
"We got a bad rap -- deservedly so," she said. "We want to change that. We want to be there for the entire family."
Rep. Pat Dougherty, chairman of the House Children, Youth and Families Committee, said he will be introducing a bill in the next two weeks that will look at making the child support enforcement system more efficient.
"We want to make the system work better for children," he said. "I want to examine issues of visitation, mediation, arbitration, the ability to access courts without lawyers, and other parenting issues."
This closer examination of the division comes as Dougherty's committee unanimously approved a federal mandate toughening enforcement for child support payments. Under the bill, anyone who is three months or $2,000 behind on their child support payments can have their driver's, professional or recreational licenses revoked.
Originally, the Child Support Enforcement Division had proposed triggering the revocation when the parent was three months or $1,000 behind -- which ever occurred first. But Rep. Norma Champion, R-Springfield, said the dollar trigger might be what someone pays in just one month.
"This is a very serious thing to do," she said. "It should be a last resort. The percentage of people affected may not be huge, but I'm sure there are quite a few paying over $1,000 a month. To take action when they are only one month in arrears is overly restrictive."
Champion also said she was concerned about setting amounts in legislation.
"This may not get looked at for 10 years," she said. "It may not be that much money then."
Kaiser, the child-support agency director, said she did not have a problem with the increase.
Another area of contention in the bill was how to determine paternity. Kaiser's office had proposed changing the standard from rebuttable to conclusive presumption of paternity, based on genetic testing.
Prosecutors from around the state argued that there is no possible way to conclusively determine paternity.
"Experts who testify on these issues refuse to give blood tests that kind of validity," said John Dockery, director of the child support unit in the St. Louis city circuit attorney's office. "If two people were never together sexually the man could not be the father, even though the DNA could say he might be."
Kaiser said her agency had been hoping to narrow the area of litigation.
"Why let people argue a point when genetic tests are so reliable," she said. "I'd rather build the law around most cases than the one exception." However, Kaiser said she will not argue against keeping the reputable presumption language.
Champion said she is worried about how the department might use its license revocation powers.
"I'm concerned this will be used with a very heavy hand," she said. "The department has not been very responsive in the past. They seem to have an adversarial role with men."