[Barbara Jordan Scrapbook, July - October, 1970] Page: 7 of 104

                                
Committee endorses wage garnishment

B3 FELTON WEST, CHIEF
Post State Capital Bureau
AUSTIN - A state con-
stitutional amendment allow-
ing wages to be garnisheed -
for  child-support payments
and a law providing for deter-
mination. of paternity of ille-
gitimate children were en-
dorsed Thursday by a Texas
Senate committee.
The Senate Interim Com-

mittee on Welfare Reform
took the action after State
Welfare Commissioner Burton
G. Hackney strongly backed
the  proposed  constitutional
amendment and other strong-
er child-support measures.
Hackney told the committee
many children on the state
welfare rolls might not be
there if the state had stronger
child support laws.

He said that as of March
about 13.4 per cent of the
children on the Aid to Fami-
lies with Dependent Children
(ADC) roll were children of
divorced parents, about 13.9
per cent were children of sep-
arated parents, about 1.7.4 per
cent had been deserted and
about 28.5 per cent were born
out of wedlock.
The proposed constitutional

amendment   would   change
Texas' longtime constitutional
ban against any attachment of
wages for debts only to the
extent of allowing garnish-
ment by court order for "pay-
ment of current child support
obligations as defined by the
Legislature." The proposal is
that this be submitted by the
Legislature to the voters in
November 1972.

Jim Nance, a member of
the Texas Legislative Council
staff who is working with a
State Bar of Texas committee
to draft a new family code
dealing with child-support and
paternity, told the  senate
committee the bar committee
had approved the proposed
amendment in principle, al-
though it had not settled on
the final wording.
Nance also told the senate

committee, headed by Hous-
tonian William P. Hobby Jr,
that the proposed family code
will provide for monetary
judgments   against  fathers
who fail to make court-or-
dered child-support payments
- judgments which can be
executed by seizure and sale
of the defaulters' property.
State Sen Barbara Jordan

praised this proposal, but the
4flrrff-f~e_'o  ecom
men a ion conc        .
NANCE SAID the new code
also will propose a stuatutory
procedure for determination
of paternity through lawsuits
in cases of illegitimate chil-
dren.
It was on Sen Jordan's mo-
tion that the committee voted
to recommend this to the sen-
ate and on motion of Sen
Charles Wilson of Lufkin that
the committee recommended
the amendment on garnish-
ment.
. In another action, the com-
mittee unanimously approved
a resolution urging Congress
to eliminate from the pending
HR 17550 provisions which
would substantially reduce'
federal financial support of
medicaid costs for welfare
recipients while other provi-
sions enlarged the eligibility
for benefits.
THE RESOLUTION, which
Lt Gov Ben Barnes urged the
committee to adopt, said the
shifting of the financial bur-
den to the states would be an
undue hardship.
The congressional bill pro-
poses to shift to the states
more of the financing of care
in general tubercolosis hospi-
tals, skilled nursing homes
and  mental hospitals and
would allow the secretary of
health, education and welfare
to reduce federal matching
for patients in intermediate-
care facilities.

HOUSTON POST
JULY 10, 1970

The committee met with
Barnes Thursday morning to
discuss its recommendations
of Wednesday that the $80
million  annual state  con-
stitutional ceiling on welfare
payments be eliminated and
that the present level of wel-
fare payments be greatly in-
cressed.
BARNES SAID afterward
he thought the Senate would
vote to remove the con-
stitutional ceiling, but
doubted the House would ap-
prove this. The House op-
posed it last session but ap-
proved raising  the ceiling
then from $60 million to $80
million.
Barnes said the outlook for
the Legislature's approving
next year more appropria-
tions than sufficient simply to
maintain present welfare pay-
ment levels is not bright.
Even that, according to De-
partment of Public Welfare
estimates, will require about
$54 million more in the next
state biennium than was ap-
propriated for this biennium.
T h e lieutenant governor
said the Legislature might
pay more attention to the rec-
ommendation to increase pay-
ment levels if the Hobby com-
mittee can i recommend re-
forms that will save consid-
erable in welfare adminis-
trative costs. He said he is
hopeful the committee can
recommend such savings af-
ter completing its study.