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Mississippi child support bill passes Senate

Published On: Mar 14 2013 11:56:43 AM CDT

JACKSON, Miss. -

The Mississippi Senate is pushing ahead a plan to privatize the collection of child support payments.

Senators voted Wednesday to support House Bill 1009. It would allow the Mississippi Department of Human Services to contract with private vendors to collect unpaid child support, which lawmakers said totals more than $1 billion.

State employees protested the bill March 5 at the Capitol, warning a previous privatization effort had failed.

Sen. Terry Brown, R-Columbus, presented the bill. Brown said he can't answer many of senators' questions, but said he supports the bill for the sake of the hundreds of thousands of Mississippi children who aren't getting the payments they deserve. The bill goes to the House for more debate.

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