
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, December 16, 1993                   TAG: 9312160186
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A17   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

TASK FORCE WANTS DADS IDENTIFIED

Opening a major new front in efforts to discourage out-of-wedlock births and increase collection of child support, the Clinton administration's welfare reform task force will urge that states be required to identify the fathers of virtually all children born outside of marriage.

The group, on the verge of completing recommendations to present to President Clinton, has decided to make tight new federal standards on establishing paternity a centerpiece of the task force's proposals for implementing Clinton's campaign promise to crack down on "deadbeat dads" who fail to pay child support.

It also symbolizes the task force's call for a fundamental shift in welfare laws to require that fathers of children on public relief face the same obligations as mothers. As part of that shift, the task force calls for "significant experimentation" with "mandatory work programs" for men who do not pay child support - a recommendation that mirrors its proposal that mothers be required to work after two years on the rolls.

While absent parents have the potential to pay more than $47 billion annually in child support, $13 billion is being paid, according to an analysis cited in the report. - Los Angeles Times

Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.

by CNB