Union Calendar No. 240
105TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 3130
[Report No. 105–422]
A BILL
To provide for an alternative penalty procedure for
States that fail to meet Federal child support
data processing requirements, to reform Federal
incentive payments for effective child support
performance, and to provide for a more flexible
penalty procedure for States that violate inter-
jurisdictional adoption requirements.
FEBRUARY 27, 1998
Reported with an amendment, committed to the Commit-
tee of the Whole House on the State of the Union, and
ordered to be printed
IB
Union Calendar No. 240
105TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 3130
[Report No. 105–422]
To provide for an alternative penalty procedure for States that fail to meet
Federal child support data processing requirements, to reform Federal
incentive payments for effective child support performance, and to provide
for a more flexible penalty procedure for States that violate interjurisdic-
tional adoption requirements.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY 28, 1998
Mr. SHAW (for himself and Mr. LEVIN) introduced the following bill; which
was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means
FEBRUARY 27, 1998
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 28, 1998]
A BILL
To provide for an alternative penalty procedure for States
that fail to meet Federal child support data processing
requirements, to reform Federal incentive payments for
effective child support performance, and to provide for
a more flexible penalty procedure for States that violate
interjurisdictional adoption requirements.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Child Support Perform-
ance and Incentive Act of 1998’’.
SEC. 2. TABLE OF CONTENTS.
The table of contents of this Act is as follows:
Sec. 1. Short title.
Sec. 2. Table of contents.
TITLE I—CHILD SUPPORT DATA PROCESSING REQUIREMENTS
Sec. 101. Alternative penalty procedure.
Sec. 102. Authority to waive single Statewide automated data processing and in-
formation retrieval system requirement.
TITLE II—CHILD SUPPORT INCENTIVE SYSTEM
Sec. 201. Incentive payments to States.
TITLE III—ADOPTION PROVISIONS
Sec. 301. More flexible penalty procedure to be applied for failing to permit inter-
jurisdictional adoption.
TITLE IV—TECHNICAL CORRECTIONS
Sec. 401. Technical corrections.
TITLE I—CHILD SUPPORT DATA
PROCESSING REQUIREMENTS
SEC. 101. ALTERNATIVE PENALTY PROCEDURE.
Section 455(a) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C.
655(a)) is amended by adding at the end the following:
‘‘(4)(A) If—
‘‘(i) the Secretary determines that a State plan
under section 454 would (in the absence of this para-
graph) be disapproved for the failure of the State to
comply with section 454(24)(A), and that the State
has made and is continuing to make a good faith ef-
fort to so comply; and
‘‘(ii) the State has submitted to the Secretary a
corrective compliance plan that describes how, by
when, and at what cost the State will achieve such
compliance, which has been approved by the Sec-
retary,
then the Secretary shall not disapprove the State plan
under section 454, and the Secretary shall reduce the
amount otherwise payable to the State under paragraph
(1)(A) of this subsection for the fiscal year by the penalty
amount.
‘‘(B) In this paragraph:
‘‘(i) The term ‘penalty amount’ means, with re-
spect to a failure of a State to comply with section
454(24)—
‘‘(I) 4 percent of the penalty base, in the
case of the 1st fiscal year in which such a failure
by the State occurs;
‘‘(II) 8 percent of the penalty base, in the
case of the 2nd such fiscal year;
‘‘(III) 16 percent of the penalty base, in the
case of the 3rd such fiscal year; or
‘‘(IV) 20 percent of the penalty base, in the
case of the 4th or any subsequent such fiscal
year.
‘‘(ii) The term ‘penalty base’ means, with respect
to a failure of a State to comply with section 454(24)
during a fiscal year, the amount otherwise payable to
the State under paragraph (1)(A) of this subsection
for the preceding fiscal year.
‘‘(C)(i) The Secretary shall waive a penalty under this
paragraph for any failure of a State to comply with section
454(24)(A) during fiscal year 1998 if—
‘‘(I) by December 31, 1997, the State has submit-
ted to the Secretary a request that the Secretary cer-
tify the State as having met the requirements of such
section;
‘‘(II) the Secretary has provided the certification
as a result of a review conducted pursuant to the re-
quest; and
‘‘(III) the State has not failed such a review.
‘‘(ii) If a State with respect to which a reduction is
made under this paragraph for a fiscal year achieves com-
pliance with section 454(24)(A) by the beginning of the suc-
ceeding fiscal year, the Secretary shall increase the amount
otherwise payable to the State under paragraph (1)(A) of
this subsection for the succeeding fiscal year by an amount
equal to 75 percent of the reduction for the fiscal year.
‘‘(iii) The Secretary shall reduce the amount of any
reduction that, in the absence of this clause, would be re-
quired to be made under this paragraph by reason of the
failure of a State to achieve compliance with section
454(24)(B) during the fiscal year, by an amount equal to
20 percent of the amount of the otherwise required reduc-
tion, for each State performance measure described in sec-
tion 458A(b)(4) with respect to which the applicable per-
centage under section 458A(b)(6) for the fiscal year is 100
percent, if the Secretary has made the determination de-
scribed in section 458A(b)(5)(B) with respect to the State
for the fiscal year.
‘‘(D) The preceding provisions of this paragraph (ex-
cept for subparagraph (C)(i)) shall apply, separately and
independently, to a failure to comply with section
454(24)(B) in the same manner in which the preceding pro-
visions apply to a failure to comply with section
454(24)(A).’’.