Union Calendar No. 117

103D CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 454

[Report No. 103–206]

A BILL

To provide that a State court may not modify an

court.seeking the modification in such other Statewhich the modification is sought, or consents tochild support payments resides in the State inment of child support unless the recipient oforder of another State court requiring the payAUGUST 2, 1993

Reported with an amendment, committed to the Commitordered to be printed tee of the Whole House on the State of the Union and
IB

Union Calendar No. 117

103D CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 454

[Report No. 103–206]

To provide that a State court may not modify an order of another State

court requiring the payment of child support unless the recipient of

child support payments resides in the State in which the modification

is sought, or consents to seeking the modification in such other State

court.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

JANUARY 6, 1993

Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts introduced the following bill; which was referred

to the Committee on the Judiciary

AUGUST 2, 1993

Additional sponsors: Ms. WOOLSEY, Mr. MEEHAN, and Mr. KLECZKA

AUGUST 2, 1993

Reported with an amendment, committed to the Committee of the Whole

House on the State of the Union and ordered to be printed

[Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in italic]

[For text of introduced bill, see copy of bill as introduced on January 6, 1993]

A BILL

To provide that a State court may not modify an order

of another State court requiring the payment of child

support unless the recipient of child support payments

resides in the State in which the modification is sought,
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or consents to seeking the modification in such other

State court.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Full Faith and Credit

5 for Child Support Orders Act’’.

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES.

7 (a) FINDINGS.—The Congress finds that—

8 (1) there is a large and growing number of child

9 support cases annually involving disputes between

10 parents who reside in different States;

11 (2) the laws by which the courts of these jurisdic12 tions determine their authority to establish child sup13 port orders are not uniform;

14 (3) those laws, along with the limits imposed by

15 the Federal system on the authority of each State to

16 take certain actions outside its own boundaries—

17 (A) encourage noncustodial parents to relo18 cate outside the States where their children and

19 the custodial parents reside to avoid the jurisdic20 tion of the courts of such States, resulting in an

21 increase in the amount of interstate travel and

22 communication required to establish and collect

23 on child support orders and a burden on custo24 dial parents that is expensive, time consuming,
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1 and disruptive of occupations and commercial

2 activity;

3 (B) contribute to the pressing problem of

4 relatively low levels of child support payments in

5 interstate cases and to inequities in child sup6 port payments levels which are based solely on

7 the non custodial parent’s choice of residence;

8 (C) encourage a disregard of court orders

9 resulting in massive arrearages nationwide;

10 (D) allow noncustodial parents to avoid the

11 payment of regularly scheduled child support

12 payments for extensive periods of time, resulting

13 in substantial hardship for the children for

14 whom support is due and for their custodians;

15 and

16 (E) lead to the excessive relitigation of cases

17 and to the establishment of conflicting orders by

18 the courts of various jurisdictions, resulting in

19 confusion, waste of judicial resources, disrespect

20 for the courts, and a diminution of public con21 fidence in the rule of law; and

22 (4) among the results of these conditions is the

23 failure of the courts of the States to give full faith and

24 credit to the judicial proceedings of the other States,

25 the deprivation of rights of liberty and property with-
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1 out due process of law, burdens on commerce among

2 the States, and harm to the welfare of children and

3 their parents and other custodians.

4 (b) STATEMENT OF POLICY.—For the reasons set forth

5 in subsection (a), it is necessary to establish national stand6 ards under which the courts of different States will deter7 mine their jurisdiction to issue a child support order and

8 the effect to be given by each State to child support orders

9 issued by the courts of other States.

10 (c) PURPOSES.—The purposes of this Act are to—

11 (1) facilitate the enforcement of child support or12 ders among the States;

13 (2) discourage continuing interstate controversies

14 over child support in the interest of greater financial

15 stability and secure family relationships for the child;

16 and

17 (3) avoid jurisdictional competition and conflict

18 among State courts in the establishment of child sup19 port orders.

20 SEC. 3. FULL FAITH AND CREDIT GIVEN TO CHILD SUPPORT

21 ORDERS.

22 (a) IN GENERAL.—Chapter 115 of title 28, United

23 States Code, is amended by inserting after section 1738A

24 the following new section:
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1 ‘‘§ 1738B. Full faith and credit given to child support

2 orders

3 ‘‘(a) GENERAL RULE.—The appropriate authorities of

4 each State shall enforce according to its terms, and shall

5 not modify except as provided in subsection (e), any child

6 support order made consistently with the provisions of this

7 section by a court of another State.

8 ‘‘(b) DEFINITIONS.—As used in this section, the

9 term—

10 ‘‘(1) ‘child’ means any person under 18 years of

11 age, and includes an individual 18 or more years of

12 age for whom a child support order has been issued

13 pursuant to the laws of a State;

14 ‘‘(2) ‘child’s State’ means the State in which a

15 child currently resides;

16 ‘‘(3) ‘child support order’ means a judgment, de17 cree, or order of a court requiring the payment of

18 money, or the provision of a benefit, including health

19 insurance, whether in periodic amounts or lump sum,

20 for the support of a child and includes permanent

21 and temporary orders, initial orders and modifica22 tions, ongoing support, reimbursements, and arrear23 ages;

24 ‘‘(4) ‘child support’ means a payment of money

25 or provision of a benefit described in paragraph (3)

26 for the support of a child;
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1 ‘‘(5) ‘contestant’ means a person, including a

2 parent, who claims a right to receive child support or

3 is under a child support order, and the term ‘contest4 ant’ includes States and political subdivisions to

5 whom the right to obtain child support has been as6 signed;

7 ‘‘(6) ‘court’ means a court or administrative

8 agency of a State which is authorized by State law

9 to establish the amount of child support payable by

10 a contestant or modify the amount of child support

11 payable by a contestant;

12 ‘‘(7) ‘modification’ and ‘modify’ refer to a

13 change in a child support order which affects the

14 amount, scope, or duration of such order and modi15 fies, replaces, supersedes, or otherwise is made subse16 quent to such child support order, whether or not

17 made by the same court as such child support order;

18 and

19 ‘‘(8) ‘State’ means a State of the United States,

20 the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of

21 Puerto Rico, the territories and possessions of the

22 United States, and Indian country as defined in sec23 tion 1151 of title 18.
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1 ‘‘(c) REQUIREMENTS OF CHILD SUPPORT ORDERS.—

2 A child support order made by a court of a State is consist3 ent with the provisions of this section only if—

4 ‘‘(1) such court, pursuant to the laws of the State

5 in which such court is located, had jurisdiction to

6 hear the matter and enter such an order and had per7 sonal jurisdiction over the contestants; and

8 ‘‘(2) reasonable notice and opportunity to be

9 heard was given to the contestants.

10 ‘‘(d) CONTINUING JURISDICTION.—A court of a State

11 which has made a child support order consistently with the

12 provisions of this section has continuing, exclusive jurisdic13 tion of that order when such State is the child’s State or

14 the residence of any individual who is a contestant unless

15 another State, acting in accordance with subsection (e), has

16 modified that order.

17 ‘‘(e) AUTHORITY TO MODIFY ORDERS.—A court of a

18 State may modify a child support order with respect to a

19 child that is made by a court of another State, if—

20 ‘‘(1) it has jurisdiction to make such a child sup21 port order; and

22 ‘‘(2) the court of the other State no longer has

23 continuing, exclusive jurisdiction of the child support

24 order because such State no longer is the child’s State

25 or the residence of any individual who is a contest-
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1 ant, or each contestant has filed written consent for

2 the State to modify the order and assume continuing,

3 exclusive jurisdiction of such order.

4 ‘‘(f) ENFORCEMENT OF PRIOR ORDERS.—A court of

5 a State which no longer has continuing, exclusive jurisdic6 tion of a child support order may enforce such order with

7 respect to nonmodifiable obligations, and with respect to

8 unsatisfied obligations which accrued before the date on

9 which a modification of such order is made under sub10 section (e).’’.

11 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—The table of sections

12 at the beginning of chapter 115 of title 28, United States

13 Code, is amended by inserting after the item relating to

14 section 1738A the following:

‘‘1738B. Full faith and credit given to child support orders.’’.

15 SEC. 4. DEFINITION.

16 As used in section 2, the term ‘‘State’’ has the meaning

17 given that term in section 1738B(b) of title 28, United

18 States Code, as added by section 3 of this Act.