Easing Threat to Welfare Funds

California, having missed the federal deadline for computerizing its child support enforcement system, faces the loss of as much as $4 billion in welfare funds. The timing of the penalty, coming as the state and counties implement ambitious welfare reforms, couldn’t be worse. The state could lose an additional $300 million in child support administrative funding for failing to centralize and automate a hodgepodge of county-run child support enforcement systems. The losses could cause a disaster, unless Congress acts.

A bill introduced by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) would reduce the combined penalties to a more reasonable level of $3 million and give every state that missed the deadline more time to comply with the federal requirement. A similar House bill, by Rep. E. Clay Shaw Jr. (R-Fla.), would reduce the federal sanction on California to $12 million.

The huge penalties never made sense because the sword would fall hardest not on the bureaucrats who botched the state system, wasting more than $100 million while missing the federal deadline. The punishment, mandated by the 1996 federal welfare reform law, “would be like a nuclear bomb” on poor children, according to state welfare director Eloise Anderson, a conservative who is rarely on the same side as the moderate Democrat Feinstein. Even child support enforcement would suffer draconian cuts.

That’s not what Congress intended with the threat of huge penalties. Washington wisely wanted teeth in its effort to get states to improve the collection of child support payments so fewer families would need welfare. California shamefully collects parental support for only 14% of families that request help in making negligent fathers or mothers pay up. A statewide computer system would improve that number. Between Sen. Feinstein and Rep. Shaw, California should get a second chance. Sacramento had better make the most of it.