CALL FOR IMMEDIATE ACTION
Speak
against
HOUSE
BILL 0349
The Council for Smarter Government (Council
Director, Don Rubottom, 850-414-9784) will be hearing HB 0349 at 3 p.m. on Monday,
April 23, 2001. This will be the last House committee to vote on this bill
prior to it’s being debated and voted on by the full House of Representatives.
Please encourage the members of the Council for Smarter Government (listed
below) and your own legislators to vote against HB 0349.
State
Representative Anne Gannon, former N.O.W. lobbyist, has proposed legislation
that will unjustly cause divorced and unwed fathers to become felons.
This bill is being advanced under the pretense that passage of it will put food
on the table and clothing on children’s backs.
If
passed, this bill will increase the damage done to children of divorced and
unwed parents in Florida. This bill will also discourage loving dads from
having a real relationship with their children. This bill will only serve to
put fathers in jail and remove them from their children’s lives.
This
proposed legislation is the result of a "jump on the bandwagon"
campaign that sounds and feels good (bring deadbeat dads to justice!) but will
only increase the problems:
1. Florida’s Department of Revenue (DOR)
says that in 96% of Child Support Enforcement cases the custodial parent is a
woman. This is not gender neutral legislation.
2. The DOR says that ‘two thirds of
nonpaying noncustodial parents are not able to pay".
3. According to DOR spokesman David Bruns
"Most of the so called ‘deadbeat’ dads are not deabeatdeadbeat, they’re
dead broke."
4. Proponents of this Bill (and of it’s
counterpart in the Senate, SB 0400) state that its "deterentdeterrent
value" is the main reason for its passage. "We want to be able to
intimidate" dads into towing the line, says the bill’s sponsor Anne
Gannon. In the United States we have not tolerated the government’
"intimidating" its citizens - yet!
5. This bill will degrade children by
making their fathers felons. "Where is your dad?" "He ‘s in
jail. He is a felon."
Find
your own legislator and a copy of this bill on the Florida Legislative Website
at: www.leg.state.fl.us.
Please
act this evening or before 12 noon tomorrow!
Read
theis proposed legislation, and CALL and E-MAIL the following members of the
Council for Smarter Government and your own local legislators. Ask your friends
and family to also call and e-mail.
Please
act this evening or before 12 noon tomorrow!
|
Rep. Gustavo A. Barreiro |
850-488-9930 |
305-643-7324 |
|
|
Rep. Frederick C. Brummer |
850-488-2023 |
407-880-4414 |
|
|
Rep. Gaston I. Cantens |
850-488-2831 |
305-227-7626 |
|
|
Rep. Larry Crow |
850-488-9240 |
727-298-1674 |
|
|
Rep. Mario-Diaz-Balart |
850-488-7897 |
305-513-7616 |
|
|
Rep. Kenneth Allan Gottlieb |
850-488-0145 |
954-893-5081 |
|
|
Rep. James "Hank" Harper, Jr. |
850-488-8632 |
561-650-6850 |
|
|
Rep. Bruce Kyle |
850-488-1541 |
941-335-2411 |
|
|
Rep. Richard A. Machek |
850-488-5588 |
561-279-1633 |
|
|
Rep. Jerry G. Melvin |
850-488-1170 |
850-833-9319 |
|
|
Rep. Stacy J. Ritter |
850-488-2124 |
954-718-0077 |
|
|
Rep. Ken Sorensen |
850-488-9965 |
305-853-1947 |