Monday, February 22, 2010
THE REASON WHY SOUTH CAROLINA MAY NOT UNDERSTAND THE PRWORA
We--meaning the editorial "we"--were provided a copy of an e-mail to a South Carolina State Senator--who shall remain un-named--from an attorney for the South Carolina Senate--who shall also remain un-named. The e-mail was apparently a response to the Senator's request for an interpretation of the PRWORA and provided in relevant part:
We--meaning the editorial "we"--were provided a copy of an e-mail to a South Carolina State Senator--who shall remain un-named--from an attorney for the South Carolina Senate--who shall also remain un-named. The e-mail was apparently a response to the Senator's request for an interpretation of the PRWORA and provided in relevant part:
I have reviewed the information that [you provided].First, the federal law referred to in [the materials you provided] is the Personal Responsibility Work Reconcilliation [sic] Act of 1996. This was the welfare reform act enacted during the Clinton administration (1996) that significantly altered most welfare programs and eliminated many entitlements.I have not read the entire act, however, I have now thoroughly reviewed several summaries of the legislation, and I can find no requirement in the Act that mandates that state’s create and maintain a database like the one [described in the materials you provided] or that the State of Florida has enacted.
We were surprised to learn this attorney's opinion. But we were more surprised to learn that he had not read the applicable statute in its entirety and had instead relied upon unnamed secondary sources for his conclusion.
As our readers may have surmised, we disagree with the conclusions reached by the un-named attorney. We believe that there is support for our contention that federal law mandates that States enact legislation requiring new hire reporting both in the plain language of US CODE: Title 42, Section 653a. State Directory of New Hires and HHS fact sheet PRWORA. Additionally, we note that the Patterson letter posted on the South Carolina CSED website and additional information posted on the CSED website are both consistent information posted by HHS as well as our interpretation of the PRWORA.
We could very well be wrong in our interpretation of the new hire reporting requirements of the PRWORA. After all, we are not licensed to practice law and, as we have said before, do not even play a lawyer on T.V. Still, we know two things that the attorney for the South Carolina Senate apparently does not know. First, we know that a fundamental rule in statutory interpretation is that one first reads the statute at issue in its entirety before offering an opinion on the effect and substance of that statute. Second, we know of the existence of this link and have read the materials posted thereon. And because of what we know, we cannot help thinking that had the un-named South Carolina State Senator carefully reviewed the materials we provided to him, including the entire text of the PRWORA, he would understand the PRWORA himself.
We could very well be wrong in our interpretation of the new hire reporting requirements of the PRWORA. After all, we are not licensed to practice law and, as we have said before, do not even play a lawyer on T.V. Still, we know two things that the attorney for the South Carolina Senate apparently does not know. First, we know that a fundamental rule in statutory interpretation is that one first reads the statute at issue in its entirety before offering an opinion on the effect and substance of that statute. Second, we know of the existence of this link and have read the materials posted thereon. And because of what we know, we cannot help thinking that had the un-named South Carolina State Senator carefully reviewed the materials we provided to him, including the entire text of the PRWORA, he would understand the PRWORA himself.
In fairness to the un-named State Senator, however, we note that the South Carolina Department of Social Services employs a highly-paid General Counsel who has been aware of this problem for almost a year. Certainly, she is capable of alerting the part-time members of the South Carolina General Assembly--many of whom are not attorneys--of the potential problems with current or proposed legislation related to child support collection.
Labels: Child Support Collection, New Hire Reporting, Welfare Reform
