There's a garbage dump alongside Highway 95 near Sandpoint that my family calls the "Dufort Mall." It's a "ha ha" sort of funny now, but I will never forget watching my mom - partly out of thrift and partly out of necessity - go diving in the Dufort Dump.

I remember being horribly embarrassed, crouching down in the seat of the car as she ducked into Dumpsters and emerged with her finds. She told me this week that her best score was a pair of Sorel winter boots for my brother when he was 3 years old. The boot liners were missing, but still.

She got a lot of clothes, she said, that were just fine after a good washing. Unable to afford the laundromat, she washed them by hand in the tub. She passed my clothes down to my brother, who was too young at the time to be conscious of the fact that the worn out knees of my pants hit at his ankles.

It wasn't until I became a mom that I truly began to appreciate the lengths my mom went to so we never looked as broke as we were (with the exception of my brother's knee-ankle pants) and we didn't go hungry. For a while, she received food stamps but says she was thrifty with spending those, too. A box of Rice-A-Roni, she learned, could be stretched for two meals.

I'm a divorced mother of two, but it is moms like the one who raised me (and single dads in the same boat) who will suffer the ramifications of Idaho's GOP legislators rejecting a bill that added wording to an existing law and would keep the state's child support system intact. Ultimately, it is the children of Idaho - our most vulnerable citizens - who will be most hurt.

Every one of the 155,000 Idaho children who receive child support and their families will be impacted in one way or another.

Earlier this week I received a call - and so did my husband - from a friend questioning why I would be so vocal in expressing my concerns.

"What is wrong with you?" he asked. "Are you worried your kids' dad won't pay child support?"

My family is blessed in that I have a great relationship with my children's father and I have absolutely no doubt that even if Idaho's ability to process and enforce child support payments is crippled, I will continue to receive child support.

No, sir, I am not worried for myself or my kids.

I'm worried for the moms like my own. She never received child support for my brother from another father and less than $40 a week for my care and feeding. I'm worried for the moms who greatly depend on child support to provide for the most basic of their children's needs.

Several women have told me that the state's ability to enforce and even garnish wages is the sole reason they've received a single dime of child support. Imagine being told "The check's in the mail," opening the mailbox, finding nothing and living in the lone state that lacks the tools and teeth to enforce child support orders.

The federal tools that Idaho has access to for its Child Support Program are used to collect payments from unwilling parents through wage withholding. The federal databases Idaho has access to can help Idaho's Department of Health and Welfare determine when a parent responsible for child support changes jobs or moves. State and federal tax penalties can be levied against derelict parents. Unpaid support can be drawn from sources including Social Security and bank accounts nationwide.

The excuses for tabling SB1067 in the waning hours of the legislative session ran the gamut, from concerns about protecting Idahoans from "subjugation of our laws from another country" to Chicken Little squawks about the dangers of Sharia Law.

Meanwhile, longtime Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden and other legal experts say the law allows Idaho protections to keep those very things from happening.

I received an email Wednesday from Rep. Heather Scott, R-Blanchard, that asked in big, bold letters: "Who makes Idaho Law? The Federal Government? Health & Welfare? International Treaties? The Governor? The Media? Your Legislators!"

In this case, it was the actions of only nine representatives on one committee who, on the final day of the 2015 session, made a decision that solidifies who they don't represent: The women and children of Idaho. In the month of March alone, 10,420 children in Kootenai County received $1,391,063 in child support.

Committee member Rep. Lynn Luker, a Boise Republican, told a reporter that the House might have brought the bill to the floor for consideration by the whole body, but it was getting late.

"Everybody was ready to go home," Luker said.

Regarding the loss of federal funding for this program, no-voter Rep. Ronald Nate says maybe, just maybe, the federal government won't follow through. It's a gamble he's willing to take on the backs of Idaho's women and children.

"Fortunately, Idaho's revenue is $88 million ahead this year - we can afford noncompliance," Nate said in a written statement.

The people of Idaho can't. That handy wage withholding tool alone is used to collect 61 percent of all child support paid in Idaho. Another $12.3 million was collected through tax penalties for non-paying parents.

Sorry, kids. Sorry, moms.

As an Idaho taxpayer, I am worried that the exaggerated fear of unlikely outcomes has jeopardized a system that allows families to care for themselves. As an Idaho taxpayer, I am concerned parents won't be held accountable and that the rest of us will pick up the tab through increased public assistance. I am concerned that non-custodial parents will be able to skip out on child support payments just by moving 20 miles west into Washington. I am concerned that our state will be the place where deadbeat parents can move to escape their parental obligations.

As a federal taxpayer, I am angry that our legislators feel Idahoans - especially women and children - should reap no benefit from paying those federal taxes.

As a voter, I plan on holding our representatives accountable. As a voter, I plan on holding our governor accountable, too. Gov. Butch Otter needs to call a special session so our legislators can clean up the mess they've made and he needs to do it now. (He can be reached at [email protected] or by calling (208) 334-2100.)

Taking care of our state's most vulnerable citizens - the tens of thousands of children and families who rely on child support - should be a non-partisan priority.

Taryn Thompson is a Rathdrum mother of two, longtime Idahoan and former newspaper reporter.