Oregon followed in 1997 with legislation creating its system. Using the Oregon legislation, state officials have signed agreements with banks and credit unions in the state. In addition, institutions that have branches in more than one state can sign access agreements with the federal Office of Child Support Enforcement rather than make individual agreements with each state. The federal office then passes the data to the states. Oregon officials received the first of the new account information from federal officials in August or September, Shankle said.
Most child support is collected through payroll withholding.
Garnishment of an account would not routinely be pursued if the person was paying support through withholding or if he or she had voluntarily agreed with authorities to pay back support, Shankle said. Oregon has more than 235,000 child support cases involving about half a million children, according to state officials. Those numbers do not include cases in which the children are not receiving public assistance and in which neither parent has applied for services from a county district attorney's office. States have seized millions of dollars since the data-matching programs started last year. The Associated Press contributed to this report.