"With $67 million in unpaid child support payments, it is time for the District to take a new approach to collecting payments from deadbeat parents," said Councilmember Catania. "By criminalizing nonpayment, which carries the possibility of imprisonment and offering rehabilitation services to non-payers, more of the District's children will be provided for."

The "Child Support Enforcement Amendment Act of 2001" (Bill 14-26) criminalizes, as is done in many other states, the non-payment of child support in the District by allowing contempt of court actions against offenders. Under Catania's bill, failure to make child support payments could lead to a 180 day jail sentence. While this would be the maximum penalty, the bill provides flexibility to judges in sentencing provisions. For example, a judge may allow offenders to work during the week and serve time during the weekend or at night.

If a court determines that failure to make child support payments is caused by behavior that can be rehabilitated, the bill allows the court to order offenders into rehabilitation programs. These rehabilitation efforts could include alcohol and substance abuse programs, or job and educational training. In order to ease the financial burden on the District in bringing about such legal actions, it would require those in contempt of court to pay for the petitioner's legal and court fees.

According to the D.C. Child Support Enforcement Division of the Corporation Counsel's Office, as of September 30, 2001, there were nearly 35,000 child support cases with non-payments in the District of Columbia involving a staggering 112,759 children. In FY2001, $12.5 million of child support went unpaid and partial or all payments were made in only 31.3 percent of the total cases. A total of over $67 million in back child support is currently due to District families.

In testimony before the Council, the Corporation Counsel testified that they spend an astounding $18 million per year on collecting these non-payments. Implementation of Catania's legislation will not only increase payments, but reduce the District's cost in collecting these payments. The Council today passed both the permanent legislation and an emergency bill, which Catania introduced with Councilmember Kathy Patterson.

The Council also passed the "Medicaid Provider Fraud Prevention Amendment Act of 2001" (Bill 14-96), which would grant authority to the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit in the Office of the Inspector General to investigate and prosecute Medicaid fraud. Currently, only the Corporation Counsel is empowered to bring criminal prosecutions and civil actions. The bill was introduced by Councilmember Catania and Sandy Allen, and had already passed the Council on an emergency basis.

Also, the Council approved the following Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) reform bills:

1) "Advisory Neighborhood Commission Annual Contribution Amendment Act of 2001 " (Bill 14-150): Amends the Advisory Neighborhood Commissions Act of 1975 to increase, from $400 to $1,000, the maximum amount of funds that a Commission may receive annually from an individual without specific authorization from the Council.

2) "Advisory Neighborhood Commission Amendment Act of 2001" (Bill 14-185): Amends the Advisory Neighborhood Commissions Act of 1975 to eliminate the requirement of filing with the quarterly report the minutes of the meeting indicating the Commission's approval of disbursements, to require the certification of the Commission's approval of the quarterly report signed by the Commission's Secretary, to eliminate the appointment of the Executive Director for the Office of Advisory Neighborhood Commissions to a term of 3 years and reappointment, to eliminate the process by which the Executive Director of the Office of Advisory Neighborhood Commissions may be removed, and to provide that funds may be transferred from the Office of the Advisory Neighborhood Commissions through an intra-District transfer for the operations of the Office.