103D CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 454
AN ACT
To provide that a State court may not modify an order
of another State court requiring the payment of child
support unless the recipient of child support payments
resides in the State in which the modification is sought,
or consents to seeking the modification in such other
State court.
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 ‘‘Full Faith and Credit
for Child Support Orders Act’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES.
(a) FINDINGS.—The Congress finds that—
(1) there is a large and growing number of
child support cases annually involving disputes be-
tween parents who reside in different States;
(2) the laws by which the courts of these juris-
dictions determine their authority to establish child
support orders are not uniform;
(3) those laws, along with the limits imposed by
the Federal system on the authority of each State to
take certain actions outside its own boundaries—
(A) encourage noncustodial parents to relo-
cate outside the States where their children and
the custodial parents reside to avoid the juris-
diction of the courts of such States, resulting in
an increase in the amount of interstate travel
and communication required to establish and
collect on child support orders and a burden on
custodial parents that is expensive, time con-
suming, and disruptive of occupations and com-
mercial activity;
(B) contribute to the pressing problem of
relatively low levels of child support payments
in interstate cases and to inequities in child
support payments levels which are based solely
on the noncustodial parent’s choice of residence;
(C) encourage a disregard of court orders
resulting in massive arrearages nationwide;
(D) allow noncustodial parents to avoid the
payment of regularly scheduled child support
payments for extensive periods of time, result-
ing in substantial hardship for the children for
whom support is due and for their custodians;
and
(E) lead to the excessive relitigation of
cases and to the establishment of conflicting or-
ders by the courts of various jurisdictions, re-
sulting in confusion, waste of judicial resources,
disrespect for the courts, and a diminution of
public confidence in the rule of law; and
(4) among the results of these conditions is the
failure of the courts of the States to give full faith
and credit to the judicial proceedings of the other
States, the deprivation of rights of liberty and prop-
erty without due process of law, burdens on com-
merce among the States, and harm to the welfare of
children and their parents and other custodians.
(b) STATEMENT OF POLICY.—For the reasons set
forth in subsection (a), it is necessary to establish national
standards under which the courts of different States will
determine their jurisdiction to issue a child support order
and the effect to be given by each State to child support
orders issued by the courts of other States.
(c) PURPOSES.—The purposes of this Act are to—
(1) facilitate the enforcement of child support
orders among the States;
(2) discourage continuing interstate controver-
sies over child support in the interest of greater fi-
nancial stability and secure family relationships for
the child; and
(3) avoid jurisdictional competition and conflict
among State courts in the establishment of child
support orders.
SEC. 3. FULL FAITH AND CREDIT GIVEN TO CHILD SUP-
PORT ORDERS.
(a) IN GENERAL.—Chapter 115 of title 28, United
States Code, is amended by inserting after section 1738A
the following new section:
‘‘§ 1738B. Full faith and credit given to child support
orders
‘‘(a) GENERAL RULE.—The appropriate authorities
of each State shall enforce according to its terms, and
shall not modify except as provided in subsection (e), any
child support order made consistently with the provisions
of this section by a court of another State.
‘‘(b) DEFINITIONS.—As used in this section, the
term—
‘‘(1) ‘child’ means any person under 18 years of
age, and includes an individual 18 or more years of
age for whom a child support order has been issued
pursuant to the laws of a State;
‘‘(2) ‘child’s State’ means the State in which a
child currently resides;
‘‘(3) ‘child support order’ means a judgment,
decree, or order of a court requiring the payment of
money, or the provision of a benefit, including health
insurance, whether in periodic amounts or lump
sum, for the support of a child and includes perma-
nent and temporary orders, initial orders and modi-
fications, ongoing support, reimbursements, and
arrearages;
‘‘(4) ‘child support’ means a payment of money
or provision of a benefit described in paragraph (3)
for the support of a child;
‘‘(5) ‘contestant’ means a person, including a
parent, who claims a right to receive child support
or is under a child support order, and the term ‘con-
testant’ includes States and political subdivisions to
whom the right to obtain child support has been
assigned;
‘‘(6) ‘court’ means a court or administrative
agency of a State which is authorized by State law
to establish the amount of child support payable by
a contestant or modify the amount of child support
payable by a contestant;
‘‘(7) ‘modification’ and ‘modify’ refer to a
change in a child support order which affects the
amount, scope, or duration of such order and modi-
fies, replaces, supersedes, or otherwise is made sub-
sequent to such child support order, whether or not
made by the same court as such child support order;
and
‘‘(8) ‘State’ means a State of the United
States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth
of Puerto Rico, the territories and possessions of the
United States, and Indian country as defined in sec-
tion 1151 of title 18.
‘‘(c) REQUIREMENTS OF CHILD SUPPORT ORDERS.—
A child support order made by a court of a State is con-
sistent with the provisions of this section only if—
‘‘(1) such court, pursuant to the laws of the
State in which such court is located, had jurisdiction
to hear the matter and enter such an order and had
personal jurisdiction over the contestants; and