Interstate Child Support Act of 1993

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: Jobs for Unemployed Noncustodial Parents

Title IX: Effective Date

Interstate Child Support Act of 1993 - 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 Service (FPLS) to be used along with appropriate safeguards for parentage establishment and child support and visitation enforcement.

Expresses the sense of the Congress that: (1) denial of visitation rights under a child support order should be treated as irrelevant in any action to enforce its support provisions; and (2) failure to pay child support pursuant to such an order should be treated likewise in any action to enforce visitation rights.

(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: (1) 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; (2) registry information from each State be sent to the Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) (designated under title VI of this Act) within HHS for a national registry of all State child support orders.

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

Expresses the sense of the Congress that the network should be used to access State records only through the agency administering the State's part D plan.

(Sec. 104) Requires that private attorneys and pro se obligees be given access, in accordance with appropriate safeguards, to State locate resources and enforcement techniques with respect to child support, visitation, and parentage orders.

(Sec. 105) Amends the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) to require employers to withhold from employee wages amounts owed for child support.

Requires the Secretary of the Treasury to modify the W-4 form completed by new employees in order to enable employers to obtain employee child support and other information for the appropriate State employment security agency.

(Sec. 106) Requires the heads of national and regional individual tracking systems to allow child support enforcement agencies access to their information for paternity or child support purposes.

(Secs. 107 and 109) Requires that States: (1) broadcast warrants issued in child support proceedings over their crime information systems; (2) remit, in a criminal case, to any individual owed child support any security posted by or on behalf of the individual owing the support and then forfeited, to the extent of any arrearage in support owed; and (3) have procedures to obtain access to financial records for purposes of child support establishment and enforcement.

Title II: Establishment - (Sec. 201) Amends the Federal judicial code to establish the jurisdictional basis for State court recognition, enforcement, and modification of parentage and child support orders of other States.

(Sec. 202) Amends SSA title IV part D to provide for service of process on Federal employees and members of the armed forces in connection with parentage and child support proceedings.

(Secs. 203 through 205, 209, 211, 213, and 214) Requires that: (1) parents' identification and locate information be filed with the appropriate adjudicating entity in parentage and child support actions; (2) there be appropriate safeguards on such information where a court has ordered that the custodial parent or child receive physical protection against the noncustodial parent; (3) appropriate administrative agencies make reasonable attempts to timely notify any individual owed child support of any proceeding to establish, modify, or enforce the support obligation; (4) States allow parties seeking both parentage and child support establishment in a judicial proceeding to bring a joint action in a single cause of action; (5) States provide for continuation of parental child support obligations until they terminate as described; (6) States allow parties to participate in interstate parentage and child support proceedings by telephonic means; (7) marriage licenses, birth certificates, and divorce and parentage decrees contain social security numbers; and (8) appropriate State agencies be allowed subpoena power in connection with child support hearings.

Sets forth guidelines for uniform State procedures regarding jurisdiction and venue in parentage and child support cases.

(Sec. 209) Expresses the sense of the Congress that, if children receive child support while obtaining postsecondary education, they will attain higher levels of education affording them a greater chance to break the welfare cycle.

(Sec. 206) Amends the Consumer Credit Protection Act (CCPA) to allow appropriate State agencies to obtain from credit reporting agencies information for establishing and modifying child support awards.

(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 used in accordance with the application of State child support guidelines.

(Secs. 210 and 212) Requires the new OCSE Assistant Secretary to develop a: (1) national subpoena duces tecum for distribution to child support agencies and others to use to reach income information; and (2) uniform abstract of a child support order for State court use.

(Sec. 215) Requires the Legal Services Corporation to ensure the use of a specified amount of funding for child support cases.

(Secs. 216 and 217) Expresses the sense of the Congress that: (1) children on Indian reservations be accorded the same right of support currently afforded to off-reservation children; (2) State and tribal governments should, to the greatest extent possible, ensure that jurisdictional issues do not prevent any Indian child from receiving the support to which the child is entitled; and (3) States should work with community-based organizations with ties to underserved populations to develop better methods to reach and work with such populations to encourage the filing of more support orders.

(Sec. 216) Amends the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 to require Indian tribes to give full faith and credit to child support orders of other Indian tribes, to the extent such entities already give full faith and credit to the acts, records, and proceedings of the other entity.

(Sec. 217) Amends SSA title IV part D to set forth specific measures designed to secure child support services in underserved areas and combat domestic violence.

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 for voluntary paternity acknowledgment; and (2) provide for 90 percent Federal matching for such programs.

Expresses the sense of the Congress that, in a proceeding to establish paternity, once paternity is alleged, the burden of proof should shift to the alleged father.

Title IV: Enforcement - (Secs. 401 through 403, 405 through 411, 413 through 417, 420, and 424 through 426) Amends SSA title IV part D to: (1) (Sec. 401) require States to mandate that any individual or entity engaged in commerce, as a condition of doing business in that State, comply with wage withholding orders issued by any State court or administrative agency, and keep records of wages withheld for child support; (2) (Sec. 402) specify the priority for applying amounts withheld from income for child support and child health insurance; (3) (Sec. 403) subject to withholding for child support income from workers' compensation and other specified Federal sources; (4) (Sec. 405) prohibit State court application of the election of remedies doctrine to prevent collection of child support; (5) (Secs. 406-407) deny State occupational, professional, and business licenses, and driver's licenses and vehicle registrations to delinquent noncustodial parents; (6) (Secs. 408-410) authorize liens on vehicle titles, seizure of bank accounts, and holds on lottery winnings, settlements, payouts, bequests, and proceeds from the sale of forfeited property to satisfy child support arrearages; (7) (Sec. 411) require States to make a rebuttable presumption that any transfer of property by an individual who owes a child support arrearage is made with the intent to avoid payment of the arrearage; (8) (Sec. 412) revise the mechanism for collection of past-due child support from Federal tax refunds to cover additional children; (9) (Sec. 414) authorize attachment of retirement plan interests without a separate court order to satisfy child support arrearages; (9) (Sec. 415) mandate reporting monthly child support obligations to credit bureaus; (10) (Sec. 416) permit enforcement of any child support order until the child is at least 30; (11) (Sec. 417) require interest on all child support judgments; (12) (Sec. 420) require States to adopt the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act adopted by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform Laws in August 1992; (13) (Sec. 424) allow State courts to order the assignment of life insurance benefits and interests in jointly held property to satisfy child support arrearages; and (14) (Sec. 426) require States to treat international child support cases in the same manner as interstate child support cases.

(Sec. 404) 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.

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

(Sec. 406) Denies Federal occupational, professional, and business licenses of delinquent individuals until the license hold is released.

(Sec. 412) 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. 418) 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 any 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. 419) Sets forth requirements pertaining to parentage establishment and child support payments in the armed forces.

(Sec. 421) Directs the Comptroller General and Secretary of the Treasury to study an annual reconciliation process for paying child support arrearages as part of the Federal income tax process.

(Sec. 422) Authorizes the Secretary of State to refuse, revoke, or restrict passports in cases where the applicant or holder is a noncustodial parent subject to a State arrest warrant for nonpayment of a substantial child support arrearage.

(Sec. 423) Prohibits Federal benefits, loans, guarantees, and employment for individuals owing certain child support arrearages.

(Sec. 426) Expresses the sense of the Congress that the United States should ratify the United Nations Convention of 1956.

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 in the child support order; (3) revise part D plan provisions concerning fees; and (4) require States to provide for collection and disbursement points for child support cases.

(Sec. 501) Requires Comptroller General studies and pilot projects with respect to requiring State systems to pay the child support collected under a State plan to the individuals to whom the support is owed before making any payment to reimburse any State for AFDC provided with respect to the child in question.

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

(Sec. 505) Expresses the sense of the Congress that States should encourage parents to use the State child support agency to process and distribute child support payments.

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

(Secs. 602 and 603) Requires: (1) the new OCSE Assistant Secretary to provide training assistance to the States; (2) States to provide for training of child support personnel; and (3) the Secretary to study staffing at State child support enforcement programs and reduce payments to States that have not implemented recommended staffing levels.

(Sec. 604) Requires the Secretary to: (1) authorize demonstration projects to test alternative approaches to incentive funding for State child support programs; and (2) reduce payments to States which have not reinvested incentive payments in their child support programs.

Provides that "support" under SSA title IV part D with respect to incentive payments to States includes premiums paid for health insurance coverage pursuant to a support order.

Expresses the sense of the Congress that States should not use amounts paid to them pursuant to SSA title IV part D, which are reinvested in child support activities, to supplant State funding of such activities.

(Secs. 606, 607, and 611) Requires the Secretary to: (1) contract for a study of OCSE's audit process to develop criteria and methodology for auditing activities of State child support enforcement agencies; and (2) provide for State demonstration projects for the purpose of ensuring that custodial parents owed child support have a consistent source of income for the support of their children.

Expresses the sense of the Congress that: (1) (Sec. 607) children should have a consistent source of income to meet their education and medical needs; (2) the provision of public assistance to a custodial parent for the support of a child with respect to whom the noncustodial parent owes child support does not absolve the latter of the obligation to provide such support; (3) the States must continue to vigorously pursue efforts to establish parentage, and establish and enforce child support obligations; and (4) (Sec. 611) OCSE should develop a mechanism to publicize the best State practices in child support.

(Sec. 608) Amends the Internal Revenue Code to establish in the Treasury a Children's Trust Fund to hold the contributions designated by individuals on their tax returns for funding child support programs.

(Secs. 609 through 612) Requires: (1) the Comptroller General to study and report to the Congress on delinquent child support payments and the effectiveness of administrative vs. judicial adjudication of parentage and child support cases; and (2) OCSE to produce and update a certain compendium of State child support laws published by the National Conference of State Legislatures, and establish a permanent child support advisory committee.

Title VII: State Role - (Secs. 701, 702, and 704) Amends SSA title IV part D to require 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 on child support cases and the services available under their part D plans; and (3) require any changes in child support payees to be made only through administrative procedures.

(Secs. 703, 705, and 706) Expresses the sense of the Congress that States should: (1) work closely with parents to improve the quality of child support services; (2) have offices in areas accessible to public transportation with convenient hours that allow parents to meet privately with attorneys and caseworkers; and (3) establish administrative procedures to process child support cases and a child support council to recommend improvements in State paternity and child support programs.

Title VIII: Jobs for Unemployed Noncustodial Parents - (Sec. 801) Expresses the sense of the Congress that any Federal program to provide jobs for noncustodial parents should be administered so as not to adversely affect any Federal program for custodial parents.

Requires the Secretary to transmit evaluations of certain projects under the JOBS program under SSA title IV part F (Job Opportunities and Basic Skills Training Program) to the Secretary of Labor for study and possible action, including authorizing States to provide services of greater scope and duration to unemployed noncustodial parents under such program.

Title IX: Effective Date - (Sec. 901) Sets forth the effective date of this Act.