This hearing transcript presents statements regarding programs that facilitate involvement of marginal or absentee fathers in the upbringing of their children. Opening or prepared statements, reiterating the increase in paternal abandonment and its attendant social costs, are presented for Indiana Senator Dan Coats, Chair of the Subcommittee on Children and Families, North Carolina Senator Lauch Faircloth, and for Connecticut Senator Christopher Dodd. Statements and testimony are then presented from four administrators of programs intended to encourage greater paternal responsibility, including the president of the "Promise Keepers" initiative. These statements and testimony explore the detrimental effects of absent fathers, examine policy issues including paternal visitation rights and the cultural construct of marriage, and describe efforts of their various organizations to encourage paternal responsibility. A statement from the president of the Children's Rights Council, on certain policies that have contributed to the increase of absent fathers and changes that would encourage positive parenting, concludes the transcripts. (HTH)