Interstate Child Support Enforcement Act

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Title I: Locate and Case Tracking

Title II: Establishment

Title III: Parentage

Title IV: Enforcement

Title V: Collection and Distribution

Title VI: Federal Role

Title VII: State Role

Title VIII: Effective Date

Interstate Child Support Enforcement Act - Title I: Locate and Case Tracking - (Sec. 101) Amends part D (Child Support and Establishment of Paternity) of title IV of the Social Security Act (SSA) to allow the Federal Parent Locator System (FPLS) to be used for parentage establishment and child support and visitation enforcement if there are appropriate safeguards.

(Sec. 102) Requires the Secretary of the Treasury to enter into an agreement to provide the Secretary (Secretary) of Health and Human Services (HHS) with access to quarterly estimated Federal income tax returns filed with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

Requires that State agencies charged with child support enforcement maintain child support order registries and be allowed access to medical, financial, employment, and other specified data base information on absent parents.

Expresses the sense of the Congress that the Secretary should investigate accessing certain Federal data banks not already linked with FPLS.

(Sec. 103) Requires the Secretary to expand FPLS to provide State agencies and courts with a national locate and case tracking network.

(Sec. 104) Requires that private attorneys and pro se obligees be allowed limited access to State locate information and enforcement techniques for purposes of establishing and enforcing child support and other orders if there are appropriate safeguards.

(Sec. 105) Requires the heads of national and regional individual tracking systems to allow child support enforcement agencies access to their information.

(Sec. 106) Requires that States: (1) broadcast failure-to-appear warrants, capiases, and bench warrants issued in parentage and child support proceedings over their crime information systems; and (2) remit any subsequent forfeiture to the child support obligee to the extent of any child support arrearage if a defendant posts security after being arrested.

Title II: Establishment - (Sec. 201) Amends SSA title IV part D to set forth requirements for State laws on service of process and jurisdiction in child support and parentage actions.

Declares that the Congress finds that due process is satisfied if State courts exercise personal jurisdiction over a nonresident who is the parent or presumed parent of a resident child in order to establish, enforce, or modify a child support order or to establish parentage.

Requires States to recognize and enforce parentage and child support orders of other States where jurisdiction has been properly exercised.

Specifies the conditions under which a State court may modify a parentage or child support order made by another State court.

(Sec. 202) Provides for service of process on Federal employees and members of the armed forces relating to child support, alimony, and parentage obligations.

(Sec. 203) Requires that parents' identification and locate information be filed with the State court adjudicating parentage and child support actions. Requires safeguards on such information where there is a court order for the physical protection of the child or one parent entered against the other parent.

(Sec. 204) Requires State child support agencies to timely notify any individual owed child support of all hearings in which such support might be established, modified, or enforced, and promptly provide copies of any such orders.

(Sec. 205) Requires States to allow parties seeking both parentage and child support establishment in a judicial proceeding to bring a joint action in a single cause of action. Sets forth guidelines for uniform State procedures regarding jurisdiction and venue and Federal employee residential status.

(Sec. 206) Amends the Consumer Credit Protection Act (CCPA) to allow appropriate State agencies to obtain from credit reporting agencies information relevant to the setting of a child support award without having to obtain a court order.

(Sec. 207) Creates a National Child Support Guidelines Commission to study and report to the President and the Congress on national child support guidelines and to develop such guidelines for congressional consideration should it be advisable.

(Sec. 208) Amends SSA title IV part D to specify certain principles to be included in State child support guidelines.

(Sec. 209) Requires States to provide for continuation of a parental child support obligation until a child's marriage, emancipation by a court, or the later of a child's 18th birthday or graduation from high school, except in cases of disabilities arising during childhood or where a court (as allowed by this Act) has ordered support payable to an adult child in college.

(Secs. 210 and 211) Requires the new Assistant Secretary of the Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) (designated under title VI of this Act) to: (1) draft and distribute a national subpoena duces tecum for use by child support agencies and others to reach employee income information; and (2) develop a uniform abstract of a child support order for State court use.

(Sec. 212) Requires States to: (1) list on marriage licenses the applicants' social security numbers; and (2) use procedures that require individuals who have been issued subpoenas to produce and deliver documents to or to appear at a court or administrative agency on a certain date.

Title III: Parentage - (Sec. 301) Amends SSA title IV part D to: (1) require States to provide for hospital-based paternity outreach programs and adopt various specified procedures related to paternity establishment; and (2) provide for 90 percent Federal matching for such programs.

Title IV: Enforcement - (Secs. 401 and 402) Amends SSA title IV part D to: (1) revise anti-assignment provisions to allow child support to be withheld from certain governmental sources; and (2) require procedures for State verification of W-4 form information on outstanding child support obligations and imposition of monetary penalties for failures involving W-4 form reporting and subsequent employer withholding of child support obligations.

(Sec. 402) Requires: (1) the Secretary of the Treasury to modify the W-4 form completed by new employees to include information on outstanding child support obligations; and (2) employers to provide a copy of such form to the appropriate State child support enforcement agency.

Amends the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) to require employers to withhold from employee wages amounts owed for child support.

(Sec. 403) Requires States to mandate that any individual or entity engaged in commerce, as a condition of doing business in that State, honor income withholding notices or orders issued by a court or agency of any other State, and maintain records of payroll deductions for child support obligations.

(Sec. 404) Specifies the priority for applying proceeds withheld from income for current and past due child support obligations and health insurance for dependent children.

(Sec. 405) Allows workers' compensation income to be subject to income withholding.

(Sec. 406) Amends CCPA with respect to State laws and garnishments for securing child support.

Gives Federal debts a lower priority than child support debts when the obligor's disposable income cannot satisfy both debts through withholding.

Prohibits employers from discharging any employee whose earnings are subject to garnishment for additional indebtedness arising from a child support order.

(Secs. 407 through 412, 414, 416 through 421, and 424) Requires States to: (1) provide that the election of remedies prohibition does not apply in child support cases; (2) refuse to issue or renew professional and business licenses of noncustodial parents subject to outstanding child support warrants; (3) prohibit motor vehicle departments from issuing or renewing the driver's licenses of any such parent; (4) authorize post-judgment bank account seizure without a separate court order to collect overdue child support payments; (5) impose liens against lottery or gambler's winnings, insurance settlements or policy payouts, court awards, judgments, or settlements, and property seized in forfeiture cases to collect such payments; (6) void fraudulent conveyances of property made to avoid paying child support; (7) allow the posting of a cash bond, security deposit, or personal undertaking to provide for timely child support payments in cases not involving absent parents; (8) authorize attachment of a child support obligor's retirement investment funds without a separate court order to collect overdue child support payments; (9) mandate reporting to credit bureaus of overdue child support equaling two month's child support payment; (10) enact laws that provide for criminal penalties for non-support; (11) permit enforcement of any child support order until at least the child's 30th birthday; (12) assess and collect interest on all child support judgments; (13) provide for health care insurance for the child; and (14) adopt without material change the officially approved version of the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act.

(Sec. 408) Prohibits States and the Federal Government from issuing or renewing professional and business licenses of individuals delinquent in making child support payments until the license hold is released.

(Sec. 413) Expresses the sense of the Congress that the IRS Commissioner should instruct IRS field officers and agents to give a high priority to requests for the use of full collection in delinquent child support cases.

Requires the Secretary of Treasury to simplify the full collection process and reduce the amount of child support arrearage needed before an individual may apply for full collection.

(Sec. 415) Permits Federal and State tax refund procedures to be used by non-AFDC (Aid to Families with Dependent Children) (SSA title IV part A) recipients to collect past-due child support regardless of the child's age.

(Sec. 422) Amends the Federal bankruptcy code to: (1) allow parentage and child support case establishment, modification, and enforcement to proceed uninterrupted after a bankruptcy petition is filed; (2) treat as outside chapter 11, 12, or 13 plans debt owed to child support creditors, except as specified; and (3) allow a claim for payment of a debt for child support to be asserted in court.

(Sec. 423) Sets forth requirements pertaining to parentage establishment and child support payments in the armed forces.

Title V: Collection and Distribution - (Secs. 501 through 504) Amends SSA title IV part D to: (1) set priorities for State distribution of child support collections; (2) require States to limit claims against noncustodial parents for reimbursement of a child's portion of AFDC to the amount specified under a child support order; (3) allow States to assess charges above the application fee for non-AFDC child support services against persons other than custodial parents; and (4) require States to provide for collection and disbursement points for child support cases.

(Sec. 501) Authorizes the Comptroller General to analyze the existing child support distribution system and authorize, under certain circumstances, pilot projects for the distribution of arrearages in a specified manner.

Amends the IRC to revise the Federal income tax refund offset mechanism.

Title VI: Federal Role - (Sec. 601) Amends SSA title IV part D to: (1) designate the separate organizational unit charged under current law with various child support and parentage responsibilities as the OCSE; and (2) change OCSE's organizational structure.

(Secs. 602 and 603) Requires the new OCSE Assistant Secretary to provide training assistance to the States and study staffing at State child support enforcement programs.

(Sec. 602) Requires States to provide for training for child support personnel.

(Sec. 604) Requires the Comptroller General to study and report to the Congress on the incentive formula operating with respect to State child support agencies.

(Sec. 605) Defines "child support" to include periodic and lump sum payments for current and past-due economic support, payments of premiums for health insurance for children, payments for or provision of child care, and payments for educational services.

(Secs. 606 and 607) Requires the Secretary to: (1) contract for a study of and report to the Congress on the OCSE audit process to improve the criteria and methodology for auditing State child support enforcement agencies; and (2) make grants to provide for demonstration projects for the purpose of establishing or improving a system of assured minimum child support payments. Authorizes appropriations.

Title VII: State Role - (Sec. 701) Amends SSA title IV part D to prohibit States from denying establishment, enforcement, or modification services to applicants because of nonresidency.

(Secs. 702, 703, and 705) Requires States to: (1) promote the greatest economic security possible for children, within the obligor's ability to pay; (2) provide custodial parents with certain information; and (3) allow changes in child support payees without a court hearing or order.

(Sec. 704) Expresses the sense of the Congress that State and local child support enforcement agencies should provide: (1) offices in easily accessible locations near public transportation; (2) office hours that allow parents to meet with attorneys and caseworkers without taking time off work; and (3) office environments suitable for discussion of matters related to privacy.

Title VIII: Effective Date - (Sec. 801) Sets forth the effective date of this Act.