“This is one of the policies that could help men,” Ron Haskins wrote me this past May.

               –help finding jobs (perhaps as part of the child support program; many states are now running such programs)   

When welfare reform passed the Congress, Ron was the majority (Republican) staff director of the House Ways and Means Committee.

I worked with him on Maryland’s law.  I contacted him again last May.

We met with the leadership of the Maryland Department of Human Resources.  After much work on DHR’s behalf, we had a bill.

House Bill 1502 would establish the Noncustodial Parent Employment Assistance Pilot Program to provide noncustodial parents with the resources necessary to make child support payments.

This pilot program would provide unemployed or underemployed noncustodial parents in Baltimore City with assistance in obtaining employment that enables them to meet their child support obligations.

This afternoon, the bill got a favorable report, unamended, from Judiciary.

I wrote DHR’s lobbyist, “We should meet next week to discuss our Senate strategy.”