106th Congress > House > Vote 584
Clerk session vote number: 586
Description: Fathers Count Act of 1999
Bill summary: Fathers Count Act of 1999 -
Title I: Fatherhood Grant Program
- Amends part A (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) (TANF) of title IV of the Social Security Act (SSA) to establish fatherhood grant programs for public and private entity projects expressly designed to: (1) promote marriage through counseling, mentoring, disseminating information about the advantages of marriage, enhancing relationship skills, teaching how to control aggressive behavior, and other methods; (2) promote
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successful parenting through such means, including prepregnancy, disseminating information about good parenting practices; and (3) help fathers and their families avoid or leave cash welfare provided under TANF and improve their economic status by providing work first services, job search and training, subsidized employment, career-advancing education, job retention and enhancement, and other methods. Establishes the following interagency panels: (1) the Fatherhood Grants Recommendations Panel to review and make recommendations to the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) on project applications; and (2) the Fatherhood Grants Recommendations Panel for similar purposes. Outlines grant program provisions, which include providing for matching HHS grants. Provides program and panel funding.
(Sec. 101) Amends SSA title IV part D (Child Support and Establishment of Paternity) with regard to the collection of past-due support from Federal income tax refunds to grant States the authority, under certain conditions, to distribute such collected support to a family that includes a child participating in such a project who has ceased to receive cash TANF payments.
Amends the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 to apply its provisions on services provided by charitable, religious, or private organizations to any entity or project receiving program funds above.
Title II: Fatherhood Projects of National Significance
- Mandates HHS grant programs for a TANF national clearinghouse to assist States, communities, and private entities in efforts to promote and support marriage and responsible fatherhood by collecting, evaluating, and making available (through the Internet and by other means) to all interested parties, information regarding media campaigns and fatherhood programs and multicity fatherhood projects. Provides funding.
Title III: Welfare-To-Work Program Eligibility
- Amends SSA title IV part A to revise the eligibility criteria for participation in TANF welfare-to-work (WtW) programs with regard to noncustodial parents, recipients with characteristics or long-term dependency, children aging out of foster care, and certain other individuals.
(Sec. 302) Includes limited vocational educational and job training as allowable activities under WtW programs grant fund limitations.
(Sec. 303) Authorizes certain WtW program grantees (which are not private industry councils or workforce investment boards) to provide employment services directly.
(Sec. 304) Eliminates certain reporting requirements under data collection and reporting provisions, while establishing additional reporting requirements under WtW programs grant fund limitations provisions.
(Sec. 305) Amends SSA title IV part D to authorize certain State agencies to disclose to private industry councils the names, addresses, and telephone numbers of potential welfare-to-work program participants.
Amends SSA title IV part A to provide for the safeguarding of information disclosed to private industry councils.
Title IV: Alternative Penalty Procedure Relating To State Disbursement Units
-Amends SSA title IV part D to establish an alternative penalty procedure relating to the non-compliance of State disbursement units for the collection and disbursement of child support payments.
Title V: Financing Provisions
- Amends SSA title IV part D to direct the Secretary of Education to furnish to the HHS Secretary information in the National Directory of New Hires to assist in the collection of defaulted student loans and grants.
(Sec. 502) Amends SSA title IV part A to eliminate the set-aside for successful performance bonus under WtW program grant fund provisions.
Reduces FY 1999 WtW program grant appropriations.
Title VI: Miscellaneous
- Revises provisions for funding evaluation of abstinence education programs, requiring a new interim report to Congress by the HHS Secretary, among other changes with regard to such programs.
(Sec. 602) Directs the HHS Secretary to submit a report to Congress on the procedures that States generally use to locate custodial parents for whom child support has been collected but not yet distributed because of an address change.
(Sec. 603) Expresses the sense of Congress that the States may use funds provided under TANF to promote fatherhood activities of the type described for fatherhood programs.
(Sec. 604) Amends SSA title IV part A to provide additional funding for a welfare evaluation study by the Bureau of the Census.
(Sec. 605) Amends SSA title IV part D to revise the payment each State with an approved plan will receive under part D with regard to child abuse and neglect proceedings.
(Sec. 606) Provides for the use of new hire information to assist in the administration of unemployment compensation programs.
(Sec. 607) Amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to make certain nonimigrant aliens ineligible for visas and excluded from admission to the United States for nonpayment of child support.
Authorizes immigration officers to serve legal process in child support cases on any alien applying for admission to the United States.
Authorizes the Secretary of HHS to provide to the Secretary of State and the Attorney General any State agency certification that a nonimmigrant alien owes over $5,000 in back child support in order for them to carry out such exclusion or process serving duties.
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Bill titles: To amend part A of title IV of the Social Security Act to provide for grants for projects designed to promote responsible fatherhood, and for other purposes.
Links for more info on the vote: congress.gov
