II

105TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 1075

To provide for demonstration projects to establish or improve a system of

assured minimum child support payments.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

JULY 28, 1997

Mr. DODD introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to

the Committee on Finance

A BILL

To provide for demonstration projects to establish or improve

a system of assured minimum child support payments.

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 ‘‘Child Support Assur5 ance Act of 1997’’.

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES.

7 (a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following:

8 (1) Increasingly, children are raised in families

9 with only 1 parent present, usually the mother, and
2

•S 1075 IS

1 these single-parent families are 5 times as likely to

2 be poor as 2-parent families.

3 (2) The failure of noncustodial parents to pay

4 their fair share of child support is a significant con5 tributor to poverty among single-parent families.

6 (3) In 1990, there was a $33,700,000,000 gap

7 between the amount of child support that was re8 ceived and the amount that could have been col9 lected.

10 (4) In 1991, the aggregate child support income

11 deficit was $5,800,000,000.

12 (5) As of spring 1992, only 54 percent, or

13 6,200,000, of custodial parents received awards of

14 child support. Of the 6,200,000 custodial parents

15 awarded child support, 5,300,000 were supposed to

16 receive child support payments in 1991. Approximately 1 17 ⁄2 of the parents due child support received

full payment; the remaining 1 18 ⁄2 were divided equally

19 between those receiving partial payment (24 percent)

20 and those receiving nothing (25 percent).

21 (6) Custodial parents who are poor are much

22 more likely to receive no child support. Of the

23 3,700,000 custodial parents who were poor in 1991,

over 3 24 ⁄4 received no child support. Only 34 percent

25 of poor custodial parents had child support awards
3

•S 1075 IS

1 and were supposed to receive child support payments

2 in 1991. Of those parents, only 40 percent received

3 full payment, 29 percent received partial payment,

4 and 32 percent received nothing.

5 (7) The percentage of poor women who were

6 awarded child support in 1991, 39 percent, was sig7 nificantly lower than the 65 percent award rate for

8 nonpoor women.

9 (8) Families fare better with child support than

10 without that support. In 1991, 43 percent of custo11 dial parents who did not have child support orders

12 were poor.

13 (9) In 1991, the average total money income of

14 custodial parents receiving child support due was 21

15 percent higher than that received by parents who did

16 not receive child support due and was 45 percent

17 higher than that received by custodial parents with

18 no child support award at all.

19 (b) PURPOSES.—The purposes of this Act are to en20 able participating States to establish child support assur21 ance systems in order to improve the economic cir22 cumstances of children who do not receive a minimum

23 level of child support in a given month from the noncusto24 dial parents of such children, to strengthen the establish-
4

•S 1075 IS

1 ment and enforcement of child support awards, and to

2 promote work by custodial and noncustodial parents.

3 SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

4 In this Act:

5 (1) CHILD.—The term ‘‘child’’ means an indi6 vidual who is of such an age, disability, or edu7 cational status as to be eligible for child support as

8 provided for by law.

9 (2) ELIGIBLE CHILD.—The term ‘‘eligible

10 child’’ means a child—

11 (A) who is not currently receiving cash as12 sistance under the State program funded under

13 part A of title IV of the Social Security Act (42

14 U.S.C. 601 et seq.);

15 (B) who meets the eligibility requirements

16 established by the State for participation in a

17 project administered under this section; and

18 (C) who is the subject of a support order,

19 as defined in section 453(p) of the Social Secu20 rity Act (42 U.S.C. 653(p)), or for which good

21 cause exists, as determined by the appropriate

22 State agency under section 454(29)(A) of such

23 Act (42 U.S.C. 654(29)(A)), for not having or

24 pursuing a support order.
5

•S 1075 IS

1 (3) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means

2 the Secretary of Health and Human Services.

3 SEC. 4. ESTABLISHMENT OF CHILD SUPPORT ASSURANCE

4 DEMONSTRATION PROJECTS.

5 (a) DEMONSTRATIONS AUTHORIZED.—The Secretary

6 shall make grants to not less than 3 and not more than

7 5 States to conduct demonstration projects for the pur8 pose of establishing or improving a system of an assured

9 minimum child support payment to an eligible child in ac10 cordance with this section.

11 (b) APPLICATION AND SELECTION.—

12 (1) APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS.—An applica13 tion for a grant under this section shall be submit14 ted by the Chief Executive Officer of a State and

15 shall—

16 (A) contain a description of the proposed

17 child support assurance project to be estab18 lished, implemented, or improved using

19 amounts provided under this section, including

20 the level of the assured minimum child support

21 payment to be provided and the agencies that

22 will be involved;

23 (B) specify whether the project will be car24 ried out throughout the State or in limited

25 areas of the State;
6

•S 1075 IS

1 (C) specify the level of income, if any, at

2 which a recipient or applicant will be ineligible

3 for an assured minimum child support payment

4 under the project;

5 (D) estimate the number of children who

6 will be eligible for assured minimum child sup7 port payments under the project;

8 (E) contain a description of the work re9 quirements, if any, for noncustodial parents

10 whose children are participating in the project;

11 (F) contain a commitment by the State to

12 carry out the project during a period of not less

13 than 3 and not more than 5 consecutive fiscal

14 years beginning with fiscal year 1998; and

15 (G) contain such other information as the

16 Secretary may require by regulation.

17 (2) SELECTION CRITERIA.—The Secretary shall

18 consider geographic diversity in the selection of

19 States to conduct a demonstration project under this

20 section, and any other criteria that the Secretary de21 termines will contribute to the achievement of the

22 purposes of this Act.

23 (c) USE OF FUNDS.—A State shall use amounts pro24 vided under a grant awarded under this section to carry

25 out a child support assurance project that is designed to
7

•S 1075 IS

1 provide a minimum monthly child support payment for

2 each eligible child participating in the project to the extent

3 that such minimum child support is not paid in a month

4 by the noncustodial parent.

5 (d) TREATMENT OF CHILD SUPPORT PAYMENT.—

6 Any assured minimum child support payment received by

7 an individual under this Act shall be considered child sup8 port for purposes of determining the treatment of such

9 payment under—

10 (1) the Internal Revenue Code of 1986; and

11 (2) any eligibility requirements for any means12 tested program of assistance.

13 (e) DURATION.—A demonstration project conducted

14 under this section shall commence on October 1, 1997,

15 and shall be conducted for not less than 3 and not more

16 than 5 consecutive fiscal years, except that the Secretary

17 may terminate a project before the end of such period if

18 the Secretary determines that the State conducting the

19 project is not in compliance with the terms of the applica20 tion approved by the Secretary under this section.

21 (f) EVALUATIONS AND REPORTS.—

22 (1) STATE EVALUATIONS.—

23 (A) IN GENERAL.—Each State administer24 ing a demonstration project under this section

25 shall—
8

•S 1075 IS

1 (i) provide for evaluation of the

2 project, meeting such conditions and

3 standards as the Secretary may require;

4 and

5 (ii) submit to the Secretary reports, at

6 the times and in the formats as the Sec7 retary may require, and containing any in8 formation (in addition to the information

9 required under subparagraph (B)) as the

10 Secretary may require.

11 (B) REQUIRED INFORMATION.—A report

12 submitted under subparagraph (A)(ii) shall in13 clude information on and analysis of the effect

14 of the project with respect to—

15 (i) the amount of child support col16 lected for project recipients;

17 (ii) the economic circumstances and

18 work efforts of custodial parents;

19 (iii) the work efforts of noncustodial

20 parents;

21 (iv) the rate of compliance by non22 custodial parents with support orders;

23 (v) project recipients’ need for assist24 ance under means-tested assistance pro-
9

•S 1075 IS

1 grams other than the project administered

2 under this section; and

3 (vi) any other matters that the Sec4 retary may specify.

5 (C) METHODOLOGY.—Information re6 quired under this paragraph shall be collected

7 through the use of scientifically acceptable sam8 pling methods.

9 (2) REPORTS TO CONGRESS.—The Secretary

10 shall, on the basis of reports received from States

11 administering projects under this section, submit in12 terim reports, and, not later than 6 months after the

13 conclusion of all projects administered under this

14 section, a final report to Congress. A report submit15 ted under this paragraph shall contain an assess16 ment of the effectiveness of the State projects ad17 ministered under this section and any recommenda18 tions for legislative action that the Secretary consid19 ers appropriate.

20 (g) FUNDING LIMITS; PRO RATA REDUCTIONS OF

21 STATE MATCHING.—

22 (1) FUNDS AVAILABLE.—There shall be avail23 able to the Secretary, from amounts made available

24 to carry out part D of title IV of the Social Security
10

•S 1075 IS

1 Act, for purposes of carrying out demonstration

2 projects under this section, amounts not to exceed—

3 (A) $27,000,000 for fiscal year 1998;

4 (B) $55,000,000 for fiscal year 1999; and

5 (C) $70,000,000 for each of fiscal years

6 2000 through 2003.

7 (2) PRO RATA REDUCTIONS.—The Secretary

8 shall make pro rata reductions in the amounts oth9 erwise payable to States under this section as nec10 essary to comply with the funding limitation speci11 fied in paragraph (1).

12 SEC. 5. MANDATORY REVIEW AND ADJUSTMENT OF CHILD

13 SUPPORT ORDERS FOR TANF RECIPIENTS.

14 Section 466(a)(10) of the Social Security Act (42

15 U.S.C. 666(a)(10)) is amended—

16 (1) in subparagraph (A)(i), by striking ‘‘or, if

17 there is an assignment under part A, upon the re18 quest of the State agency under the State plan or

19 of either parent,’’; and

20 (2) by adding at the end the following:

21 ‘‘(D) MANDATORY 3-YEAR REVIEW FOR

22 PART A ASSIGNMENTS.—Procedures under

23 which the State shall conduct the review under

24 subparagraph (A) and make any appropriate

25 adjustments under such subparagraph not less
11

•S 1075 IS

1 than every 3 years in the case of an assignment

2 under part A.’’.

Æ