I

103D CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 454

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

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,

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’’.
2

•HR 454 IH

1 SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES.

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

3 (1) there is a large and growing number of

4 child support cases annually involving disputes be5 tween parents who reside in different States;

6 (2) the laws by which the courts of these juris7 dictions determine their authority to establish child

8 support orders are not uniform;

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

10 the Federal system on the authority of each State to

11 take certain actions outside its own boundaries—

12 (A) encourage noncustodial parents to relo13 cate outside the States where their children and

14 the custodial parents reside to avoid the juris15 diction of the courts of such States, resulting in

16 an increase in the amount of interstate travel

17 and communication required to establish and

18 collect on child support orders and a burden on

19 custodial parents that is expensive, time con20 suming, and disruptive of occupations and com21 mercial activity;

22 (B) contribute to the pressing problem of

23 relatively low levels of child support payments

24 in interstate cases and to inequities in child

25 support payments levels which are based solely

26 on the noncustodial parent’s choice of residence;
3

•HR 454 IH

1 (C) encourage a disregard of court orders

2 resulting in massive arrearages nationwide;

3 (D) allow noncustodial parents to avoid the

4 payment of regularly scheduled child support

5 payments for extensive periods of time, result6 ing in substantial hardship for the children for

7 whom support is due and for their custodians;

8 and

9 (E) lead to the excessive relitigation of

10 cases and to the establishment of conflicting or11 ders by the courts of various jurisdictions, re12 sulting in confusion, waste of judicial resources,

13 disrespect for the courts, and a diminution of

14 public confidence in the rule of law; and

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

16 failure of the courts of the States to give full faith

17 and credit to the judicial proceedings of the other

18 States, the deprivation of rights of liberty and prop19 erty without due process of law, burdens on com20 merce among the States, and harm to the welfare of

21 children and their parents and other custodians.

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

23 forth in subsection (a), it is necessary to establish national

24 standards under which the courts of different States will

25 determine their jurisdiction to issue a child support order
4

•HR 454 IH

1 and the effect to be given by each State to child support

2 orders issued by the courts of other States.

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

4 (1) facilitate the enforcement of child support

5 orders among the States;

6 (2) discourage continuing interstate controver7 sies over child support in the interest of greater fi8 nancial stability and secure family relationships for

9 the child; and

10 (3) avoid jurisdictional competition and conflict

11 among State courts in the establishment of child

12 support orders.

13 SEC. 3. FULL FAITH AND CREDIT GIVEN TO CHILD SUP14 PORT ORDERS.

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

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

17 the following new section:

18 ‘‘§ 1738B. Full faith and credit given to child support

19 orders

20 ‘‘(a) GENERAL RULE.—The appropriate authorities

21 of each State shall enforce according to its terms, and

22 shall not modify except as provided in subsection (e), any

23 child support order made consistently with the provisions

24 of this section by a court of another State.
5

•HR 454 IH

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

2 term—

3 ‘‘(1) ‘child’ means any person under the 18

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

5 years of age for whom a child support order has

6 been issued pursuant to the laws of a State;

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

8 child currently resides;

9 ‘‘(3) ‘child support order’ means a judgment,

10 decree, or order of a court requiring the payment of

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

12 insurance, whether in periodic amounts or lump

13 sum, for the support of a child and includes perma14 nent and temporary orders, initial orders and modi15 fications, ongoing support, and arrearages;

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

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

18 for the support of a child;

19 ‘‘(5) ‘contestant’ means a person, including a

20 parent, who claims a right to receive child support

21 or is under a child support order, and the term ‘con22 testant’ includes States and political subdivisions to

23 whom the right to obtain a child support order has

24 been assigned;
6

•HR 454 IH

1 ‘‘(6) ‘court’ means a court, administrative proc2 ess, or quasi-judicial process of a State which is au3 thorized by State law to establish the amount of

4 child support payable by a contestant or modify the

5 amount of child support payable by a contestant;

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

7 change in a child support order which affects the

8 amount, scope, or duration of such order and modi9 fies, replaces, supersedes, or otherwise is made sub10 sequent to such child support order, whether or not

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

12 and

13 ‘‘(8) ‘State’ means a State of the United

14 States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth

15 of Puerto Rico, the territories and possessions of the

16 United States, and Indian country as defined in sec17 tion 1151 of title 18.

18 ‘‘(c) REQUIREMENTS OF CHILD SUPPORT ORDERS.—

19 A child support order made by a court of a State is con20 sistent with the provisions of this section only if—

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

22 State in which such court is located, had jurisdiction

23 to hear the matter and enter such an order and had

24 personal jurisdiction over the contestants; and
7

•HR 454 IH

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

2 heard was given to the contestants.

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

4 State which has made a child support order consistently

5 with the provisions of this section has continuing, exclusive

6 jurisdiction of that order when such State is the child’s

7 State or the residence of any contestant unless another

8 State, acting in accordance with subsection (e), has modi9 fied that order.

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

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

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

13 ‘‘(1) it has jurisdiction to make such a child

14 support order; and

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

16 continuing, exclusive jurisdiction of the child support

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

18 State or the residence of any contestant, or each

19 contestant has filed written consent for the State to

20 modify the order and assume continuing, exclusive

21 jurisdiction of such order.

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

23 a State which no longer has continuing, exclusive jurisdic24 tion of a child support order may enforce such order with

25 respect to unsatisfied obligations which accrued before the
8

•HR 454 IH

1 date on which a modification of such order is made under

2 subsection (e).’’.

3 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—The table of sec4 tions at the beginning of chapter 115 of title 28, United

5 States Code, is amended by inserting after the item relat6 ing to section 1738A the following:

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

7 SEC. 4. DEFINITION.

8 As used in section 2, the term ‘‘State’’ has the mean9 ing given that term in section 1738B(b) of title 28, United

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

Æ