More money for fatherhood programs, but no new law

When Barack Obama was a U.S. senator, he supported a bill called the Responsible Fatherhood and Healthy Families Act.

As a candidate in 2008, Obama said he would sign the bill into law, but since he took office, it has been stuck in committee.

The bill would:

• Eliminate a penalty that currently reduces welfare benefits for married families.  
• Streamline child support payments to families, rather than giving some money to state governments.  
• Pay for job-training for unemployed parents and support services for domestic violence prevention. You can read a more detailed summary here.
   

Since becoming president, Obama has given speeches, organized forums, created a task force, taken a pledge and revamped a government website all related to fatherhood.

His signature achievement on this front was an injection of $25 million -- a 50 percent increase -- in fatherhood programs through Health and Human Services. The extra money helps pay for 55 grants for fatherhood services.

Also, the administration has found ways to meet some of the goals of the bill, such as a pilot project for homeless veterans that has helped some fathers paying child support resolve almost $800,000 in old debts. Two agencies have started demonstration projects in a handful of cities to help parents without legal custody of their children to find jobs and pay child support. Both agencies target parents who used to be incarcerated and might have a harder time getting hired.  

Obama also launched a public information campaign called the Fatherhood Buzz, which provides classes on job training and financial literacy to fathers at barbershops in eight cities across the country.

Obama's main pledge to sign the Responsible Fatherhood and Healthy Families Act remains unfulfilled. But we note that part of his campaign promise was to "implement innovative measures to strengthen families," something he has done. For that and expanding fatherhood grants programs, we rate this a Compromise.