Statement of Congressman Danny K. Davis In Support of His Amendment to Modernize and Expand Healthy Marriage Promotion and Fatherhood Grants

I have championed modernizing the Fatherhood grants for over a decade via the Julia Carson Responsible Fatherhood and Healthy Families Act. Although H.R. 5861 extends the authorization of the Fatherhood grants, it fails to modernize and expand these grants, as past Republican bills prioritized.

Responsible fatherhood programs strengthen families. Improving the economic well-being of noncustodial parents promotes responsible fatherhood and helps these workers provide for their families.

Fathers play a significant role in the development of their children, with research demonstrating that a supportive and involved father strengthens a child’s emotional, physical, intellectual, and behavioral development. Children with positive relationships with fathers – even if they do not live in the same household - have stronger mental health, economic success, and academic achievement with lower rates of youth delinquency, school drop-out, and teen pregnancy.

Father engagement does not depend on living in the same house as one’s child, with many non-residential fathers being actively-involved with their children and supportive of their children’s mothers. However, low-income fathers experience multiple challenges to contributing financially and emotionally to their children due to limited education and job skills, unstable employment opportunities, incarceration, and strained relationships with their children’s mothers.

Given the tremendous need for quality programs, my amendment would double the funding for Fatherhood grants. Only 3 programs in Illinois currently get any Fatherhood funding. The Haymarket Center in Chicago offers a wonderful program that helps low-income fathers recovering from substance addiction to find quality employment. Due to limited federal funds, this high-caliber program hasn’t received a federal Fatherhood grant in years, nor has the Springfield Urban League, Fathers Who Care, the Children’s Home and Aid Society, nor the Illinois Fatherhood Initiative.

In addition, my amendment enhances the Fatherhood and Healthy Marriage grant program by:

• ensuring voluntary participation;
• promoting healthy relationships as well as marriages;
• focusing funding on low-income fathers and non-custodial parents who are ineligible for TANF; and
• creating a new grant for partnerships between domestic violence prevention organizations and fatherhood and marriage programs for staff training, domestic violence services, and dissemination of best practices.

This amendmentincreases the upward economic mobility of custodial and noncustodial parents so they can actively participate in financial support and child-rearing as well as maintain positive, healthy, and nonviolent relationships with their children and co-parents. . I am proud that the National Fatherhood Initiative, Fathers Incorporated, and the Fathers and Families Coalition of America support this amendment.

These are critical programs that help promote strong families and the economic well-being of children. This amendment is fiscally responsible in that it offsets any costs associated with strengthening families with a minor increase in the corporate tax rate.

Congressman Davis serves as the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Human Resources on the Committee of Ways and Means, with broad jurisdiction over the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, child care, unemployment, home visiting, and child welfare.