Family Self-Sufficiency Act of 1994

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Title I: Promotion of Work and Self-Sufficiency

Subtitle A: Expansion of Funding for, and Participation

in, the JOBS Program

Subtitle B: Job Creation, Job Placement and Development,

and Work Requirements

Subtitle C: Support for Working Families

Subtitle D: Child Care

Title II: Strengthening Parental Responsibility and Family

Stability

Subtitle A: Federal Responsibilities

Subtitle B: Paternity Establishment

Subtitle C: Enforcement

Subtitle D: State Responsibilities

Subtitle E: Demonstrations

Subtitle F: Miscellaneous

Title III: Teen Parents and Welfare Reform

Subtitle A: Family

Subtitle B: Education and Employment

Subtitle C: Case Management

Subtitle D: Demonstration Projects

Title IV: Waivers

Title V: Improving Government Assistance

Subtitle A: AFDC Amendments

Subtitle B: Food Stamp Act Amendments

Title VI: Effective Date

Family Self-Sufficiency Act of 1994 - Title I: Promotion of Work and Self-Sufficiency - Subtitle A: Expansion of Funding for, and Participation in, the JOBS Program - Amends title IV (Aid to Families With Dependent Children) (AFDC) to increase funding and the matching rate for the Job Opportunities and Basic Skills (JOBS) program. Revises JOBS participation requirements.

(Sec. 104) Requires State plans to provide for a preliminary assessment of a family's self-sufficiency needs within 30 days after approval of an AFDC application.

Subtitle B: Job Creation, Job Placement and Development, and Work Requirements - Authorizes any State to establish a public jobs creation program providing AFDC-eligible individuals with employment in the public sector or in private nonprofit organizations.

(Sec. 112) Revises job placement, job development, and job retention activities retirements to provide for their expansion.

(Sec. 113) Requires establishment of self-employment programs.

Subtitle C: Support for Working Families - Eliminates the dollar-for-dollar "work penalty" in determining the amount of an AFDC recipient's earned income disregard.

(Sec. 122) Raises the limitation on total family income.

(Sec. 123) Allows a State the option to extend Medicaid enrollment for former AFDC recipients for one additional year after they have obtained employment.

(Sec. 124) Revises treatment of two-parent families.

(Sec. 125) Increases the stepparent income disregard.

Subtitle D: Child Care - Increases child care funding.

(Sec. 132) Sets forth a formula for payments to encourage the use of an entire State allotment for at-risk child care. Limits the carryforward of unused allotments.

(Sec. 134) Requires a State agency to pay a family at most 75 percent of the actual local cost of child care (or a higher maximum, as the State may establish).

(Sec. 135) Requires a State to set aside a specified portion of Federal funds for the improvement of the quality of services and the building of infrastructure to serve low-income children.

(Sec. 136) Revises requirements with respect to child care for working AFDC parents.

(Sec. 137) Revises child care health and safety standards and continuity of care requirements.

(Sec. 138) Requires a State agency to ensure: (1) periodic identification of child care needs; (2) family understanding of child care alternatives; and (3) reimbursement mechanisms meeting family needs.

(Sec. 140) Revises "seamless services facilitation" requirements for the provision of child care assistance to families who cease to receive AFDC benefits.

(Sec. 141) Allows States to continue child care assistance without interruption during breaks between otherwise allowable activities, and for a reasonable time after loss of employment, to ensure continuity of child care arrangements.

(Sec. 142) Requires States to guarantee child care whether or not a caretaker relative is receiving AFDC.

(Sec. 143) Grants States the option to extend transitional child care benefits, and provide them to families who have received AFDC for less than three months.

(Sec. 145) Limits at-risk child care to families ineligible for recipient or transitional child care.

(Sec. 146) Repeals the requirement that a family receiving transitional child care benefits include a dependent child.

(Sec. 148) Requires a State to ensure continued provision of child care with respect to a family of an individual in dispute resolution with the State over the individual's qualification for such care.

(Sec. 149) Grants a State agency the option to enter agreements for consolidation of State responsibility for child care.

Title II: Strengthening Parental Responsibility and Family Stability - Subtitle A: Federal Responsibilities - Adds to present uses of the Federal Parent Locator Service: (1) establishing parentage, or establishing, modifying, and enforcing child support obligations; and (2) providing safeguards to prevent the disclosure of information in case that would jeopardize the safety of the custodial or noncustodial parent or any child of either such parent.

(Sec. 202) Requires the Federal Parent Locator System to include information on an absent parent's income and assets.

Directs the Secretary of the Treasury to enter into an agreement with the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) (the Secretary) to provide the System with prompt access to all Federal income tax returns.

Directs the Secretary to expand the Parent Locator Service to establish a national network based on the comprehensive statewide child support enforcement systems developed by the States in order to give each State access to records of other States.

(Sec. 203) Directs the Secretary to establish a Federal registry of all child support orders recorded in State registries. Requires the Federal registry to compare information on W-4 forms with information in child support orders.

(Sec. 204) Directs the Secretary of the Treasury to establish a system of reporting by requiring employers to provide a copy of every employee's W-4 form to the Federal child support order registry.

(Sec. 205) Increases the base matching rate for Federal payments for State child support enforcement activities.

(Sec. 206) Revises requirements for performance-based incentives and penalties.

(Sec. 207) Provides for increased Federal financial participation for States with unified child support enforcement programs.

(Sec. 208) Directs the Secretary to promulgate criteria and standards for a new child support audit process.

(Sec. 209) Establishes the National Child Support Guidelines Commission to develop a national child support guideline for congressional consideration based on a study of various guideline models, the benefits and efficiencies of such models, and any needed improvements.

(Sec. 210) Directs the Secretary to establish a Child Support Audit Advisory Committee.

Subtitle B: Paternity Establishment - Revises requirements for paternity establishment procedures. Requires States to provide for new outreach programs to encourage voluntary paternity acknowledgement. Sets forth an administrative penalty of AFDC recuctions for children for whom paternity is not established promptly.

Subtitle C: Enforcement - Requires States to establish procedures for: (1) obtaining access to financial records maintained by any financial institution doing business in the State, for the purpose of establishing, modifying, or enforcing a child support obligation; and (2) requiring courts or administrative agencies to issue final orders in a child support or parentage case requiring each party to file addresses, telephone numbers, social security numbers, driver's license numbers, and other specified information.

(Sec. 223) Amends the Consumer Credit Protection Act to allow a State agency administering an AFDC program to use consumer credit reports to establish, modify, or enforce a child support award.

(Sec. 224) Amends Federal law to make Federal death, black lung, veterans, and workers' compensation benefits subject to garnishment for child support.

(Sec. 225) Requires State and Federal holds on granting of certain occupational, professional, and business licenses for a noncustodial parent with a child support delinquency.

(Sec. 226) Requires State procedures to: (1) deny driver's licenses and vehicle registrations to persons failing to appear in child support cases; and (2) systematically place liens on all nonexempt real and titled personal property for child support arrearages.

(Sec. 228) Requires State procedures requiring a rebuttable presumption that, in any case related to child support, any transfer of property for significantly less than its fair market value by an individual who owes a child support arrearage is made with the intent to avoid payment of the arrearage.

(Sec. 229) Revises from $1,000 to the monthly support obligation the minumum threshold for a State at its option to report child support arrearage information to a credit bureau.

(Sec. 230) Authorizes the Secretary of State to refuse, revoke, restrict, or limit a passport to noncustodial parents subject to State arrest warrants for nonpayment of child support.

(Sec. 231) Requires State procedures permitting enforcement of any child support order until the child attains age 30.

(Sec. 232) Provides for State certification to the Secretary of the Treasury of a child support obligation for Internal Revenue Service collection.

Subtitle D: State Responsibilities - Requires procedures under which a State child support enforcement agency shall establish an automated central child support order registry.

(Sec. 241) Requires a State to transmit a wage withholding order to the employer of any individual upon the imposition of a child support obligation.

(Sec. 242) Requires the Secretary to develop a uniform abstract of a child support order with specified contents.

(Sec. 243) Requires States to enact the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act.

(Sec. 244) Revises requirements for expedited processes, administrative procedures, and due process.

(Sec. 246) Requires State plans to provide for an ongoing program of outreach to eligible persons.

(Sec. 247) Requires States to: (1) ensure cost-of-living adjustments for child support awards; (2) establish a simplified process for review and adjustment of certain child support orders; and (3) ensure that the State does not provide to any noncustodial parent representation relating to review or adjustment of a child support order, unless the State makes such provision outside the State agency.

(Sec. 250) Directs the Secretary to conduct and complete staffing studies for each State child support enforcement program, including each agency and court involved in the child support process. Requires specified reductions in AFDC payments to a State that has not met performance standards and has not implemented the staffing levels recommended in the report to the Congress on such studies.

(Sec. 251) Requires States to develop and implement a program of annual training to all personnel performing functions under the State plan.

(Sec. 252) Sets priorities for the distribution of collected child support.

(Sec. 253) Grants States the option to waive temporarily the right to collect child support obligations of teen noncustodial parents participating in a State educational or employment preparation program.

Subtitle E: Demonstrations - Directs the Secretary to make grants to up to six States to conduct demonstration projects for establishing or improving a system of assured minimum child support payments.

Subtitle F: Miscellaneous - Amends the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) to make a technical correction to the definition of medical child support order.

Title III: Teen Parents and Welfare Reform - Subtitle A: Family - Requires a State plan to provide that, with specified exceptions, no AFDC benefits shall be provided to an individual under age 18 who has never married but has a dependent child in his or her care or is pregnant and eligible for AFDC if the individual's case manager determines that the individual is not residing in the home of the individual's parent, legal guardian, or other adult relative, or in a foster home, maternity home, or other adult-supervised supportive living arrangement.

(Sec. 302) Requires a State plan to provide for a $50 increase in the monthly benefit to a family including an individual under age 20 who is the parent of a child whose paternity has been established or with respect to which a child support order is in effect.

Subtitle B: Education and Employment - Sets forth schooling and employment requirements for any AFDC recipient who is under age 20 and is a custodial parent or is pregnant.

(Sec. 312) Allows a State to increase AFDC payments by a certain amount to any qualified participant in certain appropriate summer educational or other activities.

(Sec. 313) Provides for bonus payments to States which meet specified goals for teen participation in Job Opportunities and Basic Skills (JOBS) program activities.

(Sec. 314) Allows States the option to provide child care for certain non-AFDC teen parents.

Subtitle C: Case Management - Requires a State plan to provide for assignment of a case manager to each AFDC recipient who is under age 20 and is a custodial parent or is pregnant.

Subtitle D: Demonstration Projects - Directs the HHS Secretary, the Secretary of Education, and the Chief Executive Officer of the Corporation for National and Community Service to jointly make grants to eligible entities for the development of intensive and sustained school-linked and school-based pregnancy prevention programs for adolescents and their families in areas of high poverty or high unmarried adolescent birth rates.

Directs the HHS Secretary to approve between five and seven demonstration projects to provide comprehensive services to prevent adolescent pregnancy in high-risk communities.

Title IV: Waivers - Provides for funding of waivers that are not cost neutral.

Title V: Improving Government Assistance - Subtitle A: AFDC Amendments - Establishes a requirement that needs standards reflect the cost of essential items.

(Sec. 502) Requires a State plan to provide that the maximum amount of AFDC payable to a family for any month shall not be reduced below the level in effect for October 1994 to a family of the same size.

(Sec. 503) Allows States to supplement benefits for families subject to retrospective budgeting.

(Sec. 504) Revises income disregards with respect to elementary or secondary students under age 20, including training stipends, lump-sum income, educational assistance, and in-kind income.

(Sec. 505) Increases the resource limit for families eligible for AFDC from $1,000 to $2,000 (or, in the case of a family with a member who has attained 60 years of age, $3,000). Revises requirements for exclusions from resources, including cash value of life insurance policies, real property which must be disposed of, earned income tax credit payments, lump-sum payments for medical expenses or replacement of lost resources, and certain resources for self-employment.

(Sec. 508) Requires States to require, as a condition of eligibility, that adult family members applying for such aid declare in writing that each family member is a U.S. citizen or eligible alien.

(Sec. 509) Sets forth payment limits for Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Guam.

Subtitle B: Food Stamp Act Amendments - Amends the Food Stamp Act of 1977 with respect to inconsequential income, educational assistance, training stipends and allowances, income from on-the-job training programs, earned income tax credits, resources necessary for self-employment, and lump-sum payments for medical expenses or replacement of lost resources.

Title VI: Effective Date - Sets forth the effective date of this Act.