27 years and counting: Council committee wipes out effort to increase child support payments

By Marley Shebala
Special to the Times

CHINLE – On Tuesday the opportunity to increase child support payments by 10% was killed by the Navajo Nation Council’s Health, Education, and Human Services Committee, when it voted 3 in favor and 1 opposed, to table Legislation 0219-23 for a second time.

The Health, Education and Human Services Committee had the sole authority to take final action on Legislation 0219-23, which received the support of the Law and Order Committee on Sept. 25, before it was sent to the HEHSC.

The LOC also voted to increase child support payments from 5% to 10%. The 5% increase was requested by the Navajo Nation Child Support Program, which is under the Division of Social Services.
Law and Order Committee vice chairwoman Cherilyn Yazzie sponsored the bill to increase child support payments.

Yazzie and Navajo Child Support Program Director Judy Platero noted to HEHSC that child support payments have not increased in more than 25 years, since the Navajo Child Support guidelines were approved by the Navajo Council on July 25, 1996.

The HEHSC first tabled the 10% increase to child support payments on Oct. 8, presumably so that it could hold a work session within 30 days. That first work session, scheduled for Nov. 2, was canceled.
The second work session was held Nov. 11, when Yazzie, the bill’s sponsor and chief proponent, was out of state. She was attending a Tribal Interior Budget Council meeting in Washington, D.C., which had been scheduled more than a month before HEHSC scheduled its Nov. 2 work session.

When Yazzie first learned about the Nov. 2 work session, she immediately contacted HEHSC Chairman Vince James to arrange to attend the session virtually. When James failed to respond to her, Yazzie said that she contacted HEHSC’s legislative staff, and they arranged for her to attend virtually.

Yazzie added that the cell phone connection during the work session was terrible and so it was difficult to hear the committee’s discussion.

HEHSC member George Tolth said he made the motion to table the legislation to increase child support payments by 10% because he felt that HEHSC needed an “orientation” on the increase to child support payments. Tolth refused to be specific about what it was in the legislation to increase child support payments that he questioned or did not understand.

HEHSC member Andy Nez, who seconded Tolth’s motion to table the increase to child support payments for a second time, said his motion to second Tolth’s tabling motion and his vote to table was because he did not receive work sheet B.

Nez, who said he earns about $2,000 a month, said he did not know that according to the Navajo Child Support Program, two Diné children receive $467 a month in child support with the current 1996 child support guidelines and schedule, and that the 10% would have increased the $467 a month amount to $514 a month for the two Diné children.

HEHSC member Curtis Yanito said his tabling vote was based on questions from the HEHSC legislative staff regarding its difficulty in following how child support payments are calculated. “It didn’t add up,” Yanito said.
Yanito added that a possible increase to the federal minimum wage from about $7 an hour to about $17 an hour could also change the 10% increase and so it would be better to have an orientation and then take up new legislation to increase child support payments next year.

Platero, the Navajo Child Support Program director, explained that the possible increase to the federal minimum wage could easily be adjusted when the Navajo child support schedule calculates child support payments. She added that the adjustment could also be made at any time with the request of the absent parent or parents, or by the custodian or custodians of the child or children.

Before the HEHSC voted to table Legislation 0219-23, the Navajo Child Support Program’s legislative staff attorney advised that if HEHSC tabled Legislation 0219-23 for a second time, that would kill the bill to increase child support payments by 10%.
HEHSC Vice Chairwoman Germaine Simons was the sole opposing vote to table 0219-23.
Yazzie was devastated by the HEHSC decision to end the hopes of the Navajo Child Support Program to use updated child support guidelines and a schedule that would finally increase financial support for Dine’ children, especially with the holidays upcoming.
Yazzie thanked Platero and her staff for all the hard work they did to help the Law and Order Committee and the Health, Education and Human Services Committee understand why Diné babies and children deserve an increase in their child support payments.

Unbowed, Yazzie promised to return with new legislation to increase Diné child support payments.
In her presentation to the HEHSC, Yazzie informed them, “Children cannot get in a vehicle and safely drive to find a job so they can buy food, pay for utilities, go to the laundromat, attend head start and elementary school. Legislation 0219-23 is focused on helping our children.”

Yazzie also noted, “Legislation 0219-23 will update and streamline the Navajo Nation Child Support Act. Today we review the current Basic Child Support Schedule. This schedule has not been amended for 27 years. Yes, that’s right, the Navajo Nation law to financially hold absent parents accountable has not been updated for 27 years. We have ignored the financial needs of our children for 27 years.

“The world around us has changed enormously in the past 27 years,” Yazzie emphasized. “It was 1996. Technology now and in 1996 is totally different. Technology today has the capability to hold an absent parent or parents accountable. As leaders of the Navajo Nation are we ensuring that our children have opportunities? What can we do to support them?”

Yazzie continued, “As a new delegate, I’ve been learning a lot about our tribal systems, our programs and about our capacity to get the job completed. At times, I’ve felt frustrated for and also compassion for our Navajo government employees who are dedicated to their jobs and that dedication shows in the work they produce daily and often 24/7. Ahxéhee’ to all our Navajo government employees. I appreciate each and every one of you.”
She added, “I am proud to sponsor legislation that truly and completely supports children. Legislation 0219-23 should have been passed a year after the Navajo Nation Child Support Laws were passed because it updates our child support schedule to ensure that our single moms, our grandparents that are raising their grandbabies are getting the support needed to put food on the table, to make sure the children wear clothes that fit them and to make sure they have a warm and safe bed to sleep in at night.”

“Our children need our help now,” Yazzie said. “And we can give them that help now by simply updating these kinds of laws to give them opportunities to do great things for our Dine, and our Homeland, our Nation. Ahxéhee.”

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