On April 28, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee on Children and Families examined policies to promote healthy marriages. No Democratic Senators attended the hearing, and the minority staff did not offer any witnesses for the panel discussion.
Calling marriage “one of the fundamental institutions in our society,” Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) argued that federal government involvement in promoting marriage is necessary “because divorce and unwed childbearing create substantial public costs born by the tax payers. When both adults and children are members of families led by a married man and woman, they suffer from lower rates of crime, drug abuse, education failure, chronic illness, child abuse, domestic violence, poverty, and other social problems.”
Assistant Secretary for Children and Families at the Department of Health and Human Services Wade Horn said that President Bush “has focused on family formation and healthy marriages with an important purpose in mind: to enhance the well-being of children.” He explained that in promoting and strengthening healthy marriages, the government should not force anyone to get married, should not implement policies that would trap anyone in an abusive relationship, and should not promote marriage by withdrawing supports for single-parent families. Assistant Secretary Horn highlighted the administration’s initiatives to support the formation of healthy marriages. He said that the FY2005 budget included $240 million for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program “to support innovative efforts to integrate supports for healthy marriage into existing government-sponsored welfare programs.” He also noted that the administration is working to integrate support for healthy marriages into existing social service programs. “We have…begun to integrate marriage education programs into our child welfare system, providing marriage education to couples as a way to reduce the risk of child abuse and neglect, for example, as well as providing marriage education to couples who adopt to help ensure the success of that adoption.” In addition, Assistant Secretary Horn said that the administration is “seeking to integrate messages about the importance of healthy marriages into programs that seek to discourage teen pregnancy.”
Dr. Barbara Whitehead of the National Marriage Project at Rutgers University said that marriage has benefits for children, adults, and society as a whole. “Children who grow up in households with their married mother and father do better on a wide range of economic, social, educational, and emotional measures than do children in other kinds of family arrangements,” she stated, adding, “According to some researchers, growing up with both married parents in a low-conflict marriage is so important to child well-being that it is replacing race, class, and neighborhood as the greatest source of difference in child outcomes.” Dr. Whitehead explained that marriage contributes to the physical, emotional, and economic well-being of adults as well, noting, “Marriage unites mothers and fathers in the common work of childrearing and family life and helps to create a more equitable distribution of family responsibilities between the genders.” She also noted that women gain financially from marriage, stating, “Even among the most at-risk women (minority mothers, mothers with low levels of educational achievement or low income), marriage has significant economic benefits.” Additionally, Dr. Whitehead said that married mothers are happier than their unmarried counterparts. “Compared to cohabitating mothers or single mothers,” she stated, “married mothers are more likely to receive the cooperation, hands-on help, emotional support, and positive involvement from their child’s father and his kin. Having practical and emotional support reduces maternal stress, anxiety and depression and enhances a mother’s ability to parent effectively.” Finally, Dr. Whitehead explained that marriage is good for civil society because it “fosters social connectedness, civic and religious involvement, and charitable giving.”
President of the National Fatherhood Initiative Roland Warren said that 24 million children in the United States “live in a home in which their biological father does not live. That is one out of every three children in our country. In the African American community, father absence is the norm two out of every three African American children live in father-absent homes.” Mr. Roland addressed some of the consequences of children growing up without their fathers, explaining that they are more likely to suffer physical, emotional, or educational neglect; are more likely to experience violence; are 50 to 150 percent more likely to use drugs; and are more likely to live in poverty. “Forty-two percent of children in female-householder families lived in poverty in 1999, compared to only 8 percent of children in married couple families,” he stated. He also noted that teenage girls who grow up without their fathers tend to have sex at an earlier age, stating, “A 15-year-old girl who has lived only with her mother is three times more likely to lose her virginity before her sixteenth birthday as one who has lived with both parents.” Mr. Roland encouraged the subcommittee to approve legislation that focuses “on supporting public awareness campaigns about the importance of involved, responsible, and committed fatherhood. It should help organizations establish fatherhood resource centers to provide skill-building materials to all kinds of fathers at their points of need.” He also voiced his support for the Responsible Fatherhood Act (S. 604), which would award grants to states and nongovernmental organizations for programs to promote and support marriage and responsible fatherhood. During the question and answer session, Mr. Warren said that women would benefit from the fatherhood initiative because it would allow them to work outside of the home and eventually achieve equality in the workplace.
Former Governor Frank Keating highlighted the Oklahoma Marriage Initiative (OMI), a “broad- based, comprehensive attempt to mobilize public and private sectors in a statewide effort to strengthen marriage and reduce divorce in order to improve child well-being and benefit adults.” He explained that a study on the reasons for Oklahoma’s low per capita income cited the state’s high divorce rates and teenage birth rates among the factors associated with poor economic performance. Quoting an op-ed article that ran in a local newspaper, he stated, “Oklahoma’s high divorce rate and low per-capita income are interrelated. They hold hands. They push and pull at each other. There’s no faster way for a married woman with children to become poor than to suddenly become a single mother.” The OMI implemented the Prevention and Relationship Enhancement Program (PREP), which consists of 12 hours of group instruction and interaction facilitated by social workers, individuals from the faith community, and health care providers. Governor Keating said that 1,413 PREP workshops have been conducted in Oklahoma serving 18,721 individuals. “Participants represent a wide range of backgrounds and situations and include married and unmarried couples, single welfare mothers, parents of juvenile first-time offenders, and women residents of domestic violence shelters,” he stated. He also noted that the Oklahoma Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault works with the OMI “to ensure that PREP leaders are provided training and information regarding domestic violence issues. All workshop participants are also given information about referral sources for domestic violence services, counselors, and substance abuse treatment.” Governor Keating concluded by offering the following suggestions to the subcommittee for implementing a marriage promotion program: 1) Build a strong, broad, and inclusive base of support; 2) Build the design and implementation of any marriage initiative on the best theory and research available; 3) Invest significant funding in planning and developing services; and 4) Involve the faith-based sector as a vital partner.
