Economic Opportunity and Family Responsibility Act of 1995

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Title I: Work-Related Reforms

Title II: Reforms of AFDC and Treatment of Teenage Parents

Subtitle A: AFDC Reforms

Subtitle B: Teenage Parents

Title III: Strengthening Parental Responsibility and Family

Stability

Subtitle A: Federal Responsibilities

Subtitle B: Paternity Establishment

Subtitle C: Enforcement

Subtitle D: State Responsibilities

Subtitle E: Demonstrations, Grants, and Miscellaneous

Subtitle F: Tax Reforms

Title IV: Child Care Reforms

Title V: Equity Investment

Subtitle A: Equity Investment Development Zones

Subtitle B: Equity Investment in Qualified Companies

Subtitle C: Assistance to Qualified Companies Receiving

Equity Investments

Title VI: Effective Date

Economic Opportunity and Family Responsibility Act of 1995 - Title I: Work-Related Reforms - Amends parts A (Aid to Families with Dependent Children) (AFDC) and F (Job Opportunities and Basic Skills Training Program) (JOBS) of title IV of the Social Security Act (SSA) to: (1) increase JOBS funding as well as matching and participation rates; (2) revise JOBS participation requirements, among other changes establishing a minimum period under AFDC for participating in JOBS, and including certain child-related volunteer work and higher education and vocational training costs as JOBS activities; (3) allow State JOBS programs to use limited JOBS funding for conducting training and employment opportunity programs for noncustodial parents; (4) require State AFDC plans to provide for one-stop centers at which low-income individuals can obtain information on and help in applying for various specified types of public assistance, including housing and transportation assistance, unemployment insurance, and health and child care; and (5) require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish guidelines for staffing State agencies operating or overseeing such public assistance.

(Sec. 107) Directs the Secretary to enter into an agreement with an eligible entity to conduct a demonstration project to provide certain AFDC recipients with a private sector job and employment-related support services. Authorizes appropriations.

Title II: Reforms of AFDC and Treatment of Teenage Parents - Subtitle A: AFDC Reforms - Amends SSA title IV part A to: (1) increase the earned income disregard; (2) give States the option of allowing families on AFDC to disregard as a resource up to $10,000 in a qualified asset account for education, training, employability, home buying, or change of residence purposes; and (3) repeal certain provisions creating a disincentive to marry, such as those requiring the parent who is the principal wage earner to have a recent work history, and those allowing States to limit the participation of families in AFDC to only six months in any 12-month period.

Subtitle B: Teenage Parents - Modifies AFDC and JOBS provisions with regard to minor teenage parents, among other changes: (1) requiring them to live with their parents or in an adult-supervised living arrangement in order to receive AFDC, except under circumstances similar to those under current law, including those added by this Act which prohibit application of such requirement when it would prevent the individual's continued participation in an approved substance abuse treatment program; and (2) requiring State JOBS programs to impose certain educational and job-related activity requirements with respect to such parents who have not completed high school.

(Sec. 202) Directs the Secretary to study and report to the Congress on the use of qualified asset accounts established pursuant to this Act.

Title III: Strengthening Parental Responsibility and Family Stability - Subtitle A: Federal Responsibilities - Amends SSA title IV part D (Child Support and Establishment of Paternity) to make various specified changes, chief among them changes with respect to: (1) expansion of Federal Parent Locator Service (FPLS) functions and systems; (2) establishment of a Federal child support order registry composed of all child support orders in State registries established below for comparison with information from W-4 forms provided by employers on the child support obligations of employees for forwarding to the appropriate State under a national system established by the Secretary of Treasury for reporting employees and child support information; and (3) incentive and other payments to the States, including incentive adjustments to the Federal matching rate, an increased base matching rate, and increased Federal financial participation for States with unified child support enforcement programs.

(Sec. 308) Requires the Secretary to promulgate new criteria and standards which emphasize program outcomes for: (1) auditing State child support programs; and (2) establishing a system for reporting relevant audit data.

(Sec. 309) Establishes the National Child Support Guidelines Commission to develop a national child support guideline to recommend to the President and the Congress for consideration.

(Sec. 310) Directs the Secretary to establish the Child Support Audit Advisory Committee to assist the Secretary in developing revised audit criteria and standards for use above.

Subtitle B: Paternity Establishment - Provides for the following, among other things, in order to further paternity establishment: (1) State procedures for a simple civil process for voluntary acknowledgement of paternity that include a hospital-based program for making such acknowledgements and require the State agency responsible for birth records to offer voluntary paternity establishment services; (2) outreach programs at hospitals and other facilities to encourage voluntary paternity acknowledgement; (3) expedited State procedures for ordering genetic tests as part of the State's civil procedures for establishment of paternity; and (4) reduced State payments as penalties for failing to establish paternity promptly.

Subtitle C: Enforcement - Provides for the following, among other things, in order to further enforcement efforts under child support programs: (1) State procedures for obtaining access to financial records maintained by financial institutions in the State, and for requiring State courts and administrative agencies with final authority over support or parentage orders to require each party subject to such order to file with it certain identifying information on where the party can be reached at home and at work; (2) additional benefits subject to garnishment; (3) State hold on occupational, professional, and business licenses based on a warrant or delinquency related to child support; (4) Federal holds based on support delinquency; (5) State denial of driver's licenses and vehicle registrations to noncustodial parents failing to appear in child support cases; (6) liens by the State on personal property for child support arrearages; (7) reporting of the total amount of monthly support obligations to credit bureaus; (8) denial of passports to noncustodial parents subject to State arrest warrants in cases of nonpayment of child support; (9) extension of the age through which a State could pursue back child support; and (10) expanded use of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to collect delinquent child support using tax collection authority.

(Sec. 323) Amends the Fair Credit Reporting Act to allow access to credit reports for an appropriate State agency for use in establishing, modifying, or enforcing a child support award.

Subtitle D: State Responsibilities - Provides for the following, among other things, in order to facilitate enforcement efforts under child support programs: (1) State procedures for establishment of automated central child support order registries for use in the national system above; (2) State transmission of wage withholding orders for overdue child support to the employer of the individual owing the support in order for the employer to withhold the appropriate amount from the employee's wages for forwarding to the State registry for support and health insurance premium payments due; (3) State child support enforcement agency access to various data bases with information regarding absent parents; (4) uniform terms in support orders; (5) State laws adopting the officially approved version of the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act; and (6) outreach to persons eligible for State child support services.

(Sec. 347) Provides for cost-of-living adjustment of child support awards as well as for new procedures for adjusting certain child support orders and preventing conflicts of interest.

(Sec. 350) Requires the Secretary to conduct staffing studies of each State child support enforcement program for a report to the Congress, reducing payments to a State failing to meet performance standards and recommended staffing levels.

(Sec. 351) Provides for State and Federal training for State child and spousal support enforcement personnel. Authorizes appropriations.

(Sec. 352) Revises requirements for the distribution of proceeds.

(Sec. 353) Gives States the authority to waive temporarily the right to collect child support obligations of teen noncustodial parents who are participating in a State educational or employment preparation program.

Requires State guidelines for child support awards to provide that if the State agency determines that a noncustodial parent who has not attained 20 years of age owes but is unable to pay child support, then the State may, in lieu of enforcing the right to such support for such period as it considers appropriate, allow the parent to choose to comply with an educational or job training program.

Subtitle E: Demonstrations, Grants, and Miscellaneous - Directs the Secretary to make grants to a limited number of States to conduct demonstration projects for the purpose of: (1) establishing or improving a system of assured minimum child support payments in order to encourage States to provide a guaranteed minimum level of child support for every eligible child not receiving such support; (2) establishing a simple process for the modification of child support orders based on changed family circumstances; and (3) providing services to noncustodial parents unable to meet child support obligations due to unemployment or underemployment. Authorizes appropriations.

(Sec. 364) Authorizes appropriations for grants to States for programs to support and facilitate absent parents' access to and visitation of their children.

(Sec. 365) Amends the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 to make a technical correction to its definition of medical support order.

Subtitle F: Tax Reforms - Requires the Secretary of the Treasury to provide for the quarterly lump sum advance payment of the earned income tax credit.

Directs the Commissioner of Internal Revenue to expand the Tax Counseling for the Elderly program to include assistance to certain low-income families, with outreach targeted to families on AFDC, food stamps, and child care assistance through SSA title IV part G. Authorizes appropriations.

Title IV: Child Care Reforms - Amends SSA title IV to add a new part G (Child Care for Needy Families Block Grant) for the purpose of encouraging and enabling each State to develop, establish, or expand, and to operate a program to provide child care services. Authorizes appropriations.

(Sec. 403) Amends SSA title XIX (Medicaid) to give States the option of extending Medicaid enrollment for an additional year for former AFDC recipients making the transition from welfare to work.

Title V: Equity Investment - Equity Investment Development Act of 1995 - Subtitle A: Equity Investment Development Zones - Requires the appropriate Secretaries (the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in the case of any area nominated for designation located in an urban area and the Secretary of Agriculture in the case of any area nominated that is in a rural area) to designate ten areas as equity investment development zones in accordance with the designation process and eligibility criteria outlined in this title.

Subtitle B: Equity Investments in Qualified Companies - Requires the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System to: (1) establish a single rate of interest applicable to all reserves, making any necessary adjustments on a quarterly basis; and (2) on March 1 of each year, calculate the imputed earnings on all reserves during the preceding calendar year, based on the rate of interest established above, and any adjustments to such rate effected prior to March 1, and then, with certain exceptions, issue a certificate to each insured depository institution to make an equity investment in one or more qualified companies, transfer to the Community Equity Investment Corporation established below, or sell to a third party.

Requires the face value of such certificate to equal the imputed earnings on the reserves maintained by that insured depository institution during the applicable calendar year. Establishes procedures for reimbursement relating to direct investment.

Provides for the transferability of certificates, with certain exceptions. States that each certificate shall expire two years after the certificate is issued.

(Sec. 531) Establishes the Community Equity Investment Corporation as a for-profit corporation incorporated in Delaware.

(Sec. 533) Prohibits the common stock of the Corporation from being transferable before expiration of the five-year period beginning with the Corporation's incorporation. Provides that during the five-year period beginning on the expiration of the five year period above, the common stock of the Corporation shall be transferable only among insured depository institutions that own common stock in the Corporation on or before the expiration of such five-year period.

(Sec. 534) Establishes procedures for the dissolution of the Corporation.

Subtitle C: Assistance to Qualified Companies Receiving Equity Investments - Requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Secretary of Agriculture to establish a wage supplementation program. Describes such program, allowing it to operate at the option of a State which would use the funds available to pay the benefits to families on AFDC or food stamps to instead pay participating employers as an incentive for such families to work in lieu of receiving such benefits.

Title VI: Effective Date - Specifies effective dates of this Act and the amendments made by it.