I 
113TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1896 
To amend part D of title IV of the Social Security Act to ensure that 
the United States can comply fully with the obligations of the Hague 
Convention of 23 November 2007 on the International Recovery of Child 
Support and Other Forms of Family Maintenance, and for other pur-
poses. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MAY 8, 2013 
Mr. REICHERT (for himself, Mr. DOGGETT, Mr. LEWIS, Mr. BOUSTANY, Mr. 
CROWLEY, Mr. REED, Mr. YOUNG of Indiana, Mr. KELLY of Pennsyl-
vania, Mr. GRIFFIN of Arkansas, and Mr. RENACCI) introduced the fol-
lowing bill; which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means, 
and in addition to the Committees on the Budget and the Judiciary, for 
a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for 
consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the com-
mittee concerned 
A BILL 
To amend part D of title IV of the Social Security Act 
to ensure that the United States can comply fully with 
the obligations of the Hague Convention of 23 November 
2007 on the International Recovery of Child Support 
and Other Forms of Family Maintenance, and for other 
purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; REFERENCES. 
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 
‘‘International Child Support Recovery Improvement Act 
of 2013’’. 
(b) REFERENCES.—Except as otherwise expressly 
provided in this Act, wherever in this Act an amendment 
is expressed in terms of an amendment to a section or 
other provision, the amendment shall be considered to be 
made to a section or other provision of the Social Security 
Act. 
SEC. 2. AMENDMENTS TO ENSURE ACCESS TO CHILD SUP-
PORT SERVICES FOR INTERNATIONAL CHILD 
SUPPORT CASES. 
(a) AUTHORITY OF THE SECRETARY OF HHS TO EN-
SURE COMPLIANCE WITH MULTILATERAL CHILD SUP-
PORT CONVENTIONS.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—Section 452 (42 U.S.C. 652) 
is amended— 
(A) by redesignating the second subsection 
(l) (as added by section 7306 of the Deficit Re-
duction Act of 2005) as subsection (m); and 
(B) by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(n) The Secretary shall use the authorities otherwise 
provided by law to ensure the compliance of the United 
States with any multilateral child support convention to 
which the United States is a party.’’. 
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(2) 
CONFORMING
AMENDMENT.—Section 
453(k)(3) (42 U.S.C. 653(k)(3)) is amended by 
striking ‘‘452(l)’’ and inserting ‘‘452(m)’’. 
(b) ACCESS TO THE FEDERAL PARENT LOCATOR 
SERVICE.—Section 453(c) (42 U.S.C. 653(c)) is amend-
ed— 
(1) by striking ‘‘and’’ at the end of paragraph 
(3); 
(2) by striking the period at the end of para-
graph (4) and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 
(3) by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(5) an entity designated as a Central Author-
ity for child support enforcement in a foreign recip-
rocating country or a foreign treaty country for pur-
poses specified in section 459A(c)(2).’’. 
(c) STATE OPTION TO REQUIRE INDIVIDUALS IN 
FOREIGN COUNTRIES TO APPLY THROUGH THEIR COUN-
TRY’S APPROPRIATE CENTRAL AUTHORITY.—Section 454 
(42 U.S.C. 654) is amended— 
(1) in paragraph (4)(A)(ii), by inserting before 
the semicolon ‘‘(except that, if the individual apply-
ing for the services resides in a foreign reciprocating 
country or foreign treaty country, the State may opt 
to require the individual to request the services 
through the Central Authority for child support en-
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forcement in the foreign reciprocating country or the 
foreign treaty country, and if the individual resides 
in a foreign country that is not a foreign recipro-
cating country or a foreign treaty country, a State 
may accept or reject the application)’’; and 
(2) in paragraph (32)— 
(A) in subparagraph (A), by inserting ‘‘, a 
foreign treaty country,’’ after ‘‘a foreign recip-
rocating country’’; and 
(B) in subparagraph (C), by striking ‘‘or 
foreign obligee’’ and inserting ‘‘, foreign treaty 
country, or foreign individual’’. 
(d) AMENDMENTS TO INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT EN-
FORCEMENT
PROVISIONS.—Section 459A (42 U.S.C. 
659a) is amended— 
(1) by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(e) REFERENCES.—In this part: 
‘‘(1) FOREIGN RECIPROCATING COUNTRY.—The 
term ‘foreign reciprocating country’ means a foreign 
country (or political subdivision thereof) with respect 
to which the Secretary has made a declaration pur-
suant to subsection (a). 
‘‘(2) FOREIGN
TREATY
COUNTRY.—The term 
‘foreign treaty country’ means a foreign country for 
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(f) STATE LAW REQUIREMENT CONCERNING THE 
UNIFORM INTERSTATE FAMILY SUPPORT ACT (UIFSA).— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—Section 466(f) (42 U.S.C. 
666(f)) is amended— 
(A) by striking ‘‘on and after January 1, 
1998,’’; 
(B) by striking ‘‘and as in effect on Au-
gust 22, 1996,’’; and 
(C) by striking ‘‘adopted as of such date’’ 
and inserting ‘‘adopted as of September 30, 
2008’’. 
(2) CONFORMING AMENDMENTS TO TITLE 28, 
UNITED STATES CODE.—Section 1738B of title 28, 
United States Code, is amended— 
(A) in subsection (d), by striking ‘‘indi-
vidual contestant’’ and inserting ‘‘individual 
contestant or the parties have consented in a 
record or open court that the tribunal of the 
State may continue to exercise jurisdiction to 
modify its order,’’; 
(B) in subsection (e)(2)(A), by striking 
‘‘individual contestant’’ and inserting ‘‘indi-
vidual contestant and the parties have not con-
sented in a record or open court that the tri-
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bunal of the other State may continue to exer-
cise jurisdiction to modify its order’’; and 
(C) in subsection (b)— 
(i) by striking ‘‘ ‘child’ means’’ and in-
serting ‘‘(1) The term ‘child’ means’’; 
(ii) 
by 
striking 
‘‘ ‘child’s 
State’ 
means’’ and inserting ‘‘(2) The term 
‘child’s State’ means’’; 
(iii) by striking ‘‘ ‘child’s home State’ 
means’’ and inserting ‘‘(3) The term 
‘child’s home State’ means’’; 
(iv) by striking ‘‘ ‘child support’ 
means’’ and inserting ‘‘(4) The term ‘child 
support’ means’’; 
(v) 
by 
striking 
‘‘ ‘child 
support 
order’ ’’ and inserting ‘‘(5) The term ‘child 
support order’ ’’; 
(vi) by striking ‘‘ ‘contestant’ means’’ 
and inserting ‘‘(6) The term ‘contestant’ 
means’’; 
(vii) by striking ‘‘ ‘court’ means’’ and 
inserting ‘‘(7) The term ‘court’ means’’; 
(viii) 
by 
striking 
‘‘ ‘modification’ 
means’’ and inserting ‘‘(8) The term 
‘modification’ means’’; and 
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(ix) by striking ‘‘ ‘State’ means’’ and 
inserting ‘‘(9) The term ‘State’ means’’. 
(3) EFFECTIVE
DATE; GRACE
PERIOD
FOR 
STATE LAW CHANGES.— 
(A) PARAGRAPH (1).—(i) The amendments 
made by paragraph (1) shall take effect with 
respect to a State no later than the effective 
date of laws enacted by the legislature of the 
State implementing such paragraph, but in no 
event later than the first day of the first cal-
endar quarter beginning after the close of the 
first regular session of the State legislature that 
begins after the date of the enactment of this 
Act. 
(ii) For purposes of clause (i), in the case 
of a State that has a 2-year legislative session, 
each year of the session shall be deemed to be 
a separate regular session of the State legisla-
ture. 
(B) PARAGRAPH (2).—(i) The amendments 
made by subparagraphs (A) and (B) of para-
graph (2) shall take effect on the date on which 
the Hague Convention of 23 November 2007 on 
the International Recovery of Child Support 
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and Other Forms of Family Maintenance enters 
into force for the United States. 
(ii) The amendments made by subpara-
graph (C) of paragraph (2) shall take effect on 
the date of the enactment of this Act. 
SEC. 3. DATA EXCHANGE STANDARDIZATION FOR IM-
PROVED INTEROPERABILITY. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Section 452 (42 U.S.C. 652), as 
amended by section 2(a)(1) of this Act, is amended by 
adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(o) DATA EXCHANGE STANDARDS FOR IMPROVED 
INTEROPERABILITY.— 
‘‘(1) DESIGNATION.—The Secretary shall, in 
consultation with an interagency work group estab-
lished by the Office of Management and Budget and 
considering State government perspectives, by rule, 
designate data exchange standards to govern, under 
this part— 
‘‘(A) necessary categories of information 
that State agencies operating programs under 
State plans approved under this part are re-
quired under applicable law to electronically ex-
change with another State agency; and 
‘‘(B) Federal reporting and data exchange 
required under applicable law. 
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‘‘(2) 
REQUIREMENTS.—The 
data 
exchange 
standards required by paragraph (1) shall, to the ex-
tent practicable— 
‘‘(A) incorporate a widely accepted, non- 
proprietary, searchable, computer-readable for-
mat, such as the eXtensible Markup Language; 
‘‘(B) contain interoperable standards devel-
oped and maintained by intergovernmental 
partnerships, such as the National Information 
Exchange Model; 
‘‘(C) incorporate interoperable standards 
developed and maintained by Federal entities 
with authority over contracting and financial 
assistance; 
‘‘(D) be consistent with and implement ap-
plicable accounting principles; 
‘‘(E) be implemented in a manner that is 
cost-effective and improves program efficiency 
and effectiveness; and 
‘‘(F) be capable of being continually up-
graded as necessary. 
‘‘(3) RULE
OF
CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in 
this subsection shall be construed to require a 
change to existing data exchange standards found to 
be effective and efficient.’’. 
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