IIA
105TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 3130
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MARCH 5, 1998
Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance
AN ACT
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, to provide for a more
flexible penalty procedure for States that violate inter-
jurisdictional adoption requirements, to amend the Immi-
gration and Nationality Act to make certain aliens deter-
mined to be delinquent in the payment of child support
inadmissible and ineligible for naturalization, and for
other purposes.
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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 Per-
formance 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
information 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
interjurisdictional adoption.
TITLE IV—TECHNICAL CORRECTIONS
Sec. 401. Technical corrections.
TITLE V—IMMIGRATION PROVISIONS
Sec. 501. Aliens ineligible to receive visas and excluded from admission for non-
payment of child support.
Sec. 502. Effect of nonpayment of child support on establishment of good
moral character.
Sec. 503. Authorization to serve legal process in child support cases on certain
arriving aliens.
Sec. 504. Authorization to obtain information on child support payments by
aliens.
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TITLE I—CHILD SUPPORT DATA
PROCESSING REQUIREMENTS
SEC. 101. ALTERNATIVE PENALTY PROCEDURE.
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 455(a) of the Social Secu-
rity 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
paragraph) 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 effort 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:
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‘‘(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 fail-
ure 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 fis-
cal year.
‘‘(ii) The term ‘penalty base’ means, with re-
spect 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 sub-
mitted to the Secretary a request that the Secretary
certify the State as having met the requirements of
such section;
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‘‘(II) the Secretary has provided the certifi-
cation as a result of a review conducted pursuant to
the request; 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
succeeding 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 re-
duction, for each State performance measure described in
section 458A(b)(4) with respect to which the applicable
percentage under section 458A(b)(6) for the fiscal year
is 100 percent, if the Secretary has made the determina-
tion described in section 458A(b)(5)(B) with respect to the
State for the fiscal year.
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‘‘(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
provisions apply to a failure to comply with section
454(24)(A).’’.
(b) INAPPLICABILITY OF PENALTY UNDER TANF
PROGRAM.—Section 409(a)(8)(A)(i)(III) of such Act (42
U.S.C. 609(a)(8)(A)(i)(III)) is amended by inserting
‘‘(other than section 454(24))’’ before the semicolon.
SEC. 102. AUTHORITY TO WAIVE SINGLE STATEWIDE AUTO-
MATED DATA PROCESSING AND INFORMA-
TION RETRIEVAL SYSTEM REQUIREMENT.
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 452(d)(3) of the Social
Security Act (42 U.S.C. 652(d)(3)) is amended to read
as follows:
‘‘(3) The Secretary may waive any requirement of
paragraph (1) or any condition specified under section
454(16), and shall waive the single statewide system re-
quirement under sections 454(16) and 454A, with respect
to a State if—
‘‘(A) the State demonstrates to the satisfaction
of the Secretary that the State has or can develop
an alternative system or systems that enable the
State—
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‘‘(i) for purposes of section 409(a)(8), to
achieve the paternity establishment percentages
(as defined in section 452(g)(2)) and other per-
formance measures that may be established by
the Secretary;
‘‘(ii) 
to 
submit 
data 
under 
section
454(15)(B) that is complete and reliable;
‘‘(iii) to substantially comply with the re-
quirements of this part; and
‘‘(iv) in the case of a request to waive the
single statewide system requirement, to—
‘‘(I) meet all functional requirements
of sections 454(16) and 454A;
‘‘(II) ensure that calculation of dis-
tributions meets the requirements of sec-
tion 457 and accounts for distributions to
children in different families or in different
States or sub-State jurisdictions, and for
distributions to other States;
‘‘(III) ensure that there is only 1
point of contact in the State which pro-
vides seamless case processing for all inter-
state case processing and coordinated,
automated intrastate case management;
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‘‘(IV) ensure that standardized data
elements, forms, and definitions are used
throughout the State;
‘‘(V) complete the alternative system
in no more time than it would take to com-
plete a single statewide system that meets
such requirement; and
‘‘(VI) process child support cases as
quickly, efficiently, and effectively as such
cases would be processed through a single
statewide system that meets such require-
ment;
‘‘(B)(i) the waiver meets the criteria of para-
graphs (1), (2), and (3) of section 1115(c); or
‘‘(ii) the State provides assurances to the Sec-
retary that steps will be taken to otherwise improve
the State’s child support enforcement program; and
‘‘(C) in the case of a request to waive the single
statewide system requirement, the State has submit-
ted to the Secretary separate estimates of the total
cost of a single statewide system that meets such re-
quirement, and of any such alternative system or
systems, which shall include estimates of the cost of
developing and completing the system and of operat-