H. R. 3811
One Hundred Fifth Congress
of the
United States of America
AT THE SECOND SESSION
Begun and held at the City of Washington on Tuesday,
the twenty-seventh day of January, one thousand nine hundred and ninety-eight
An Act
To establish felony violations for the failure to pay legal child support obligations,
and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Deadbeat Parents Punishment
Act of 1998’’.
SEC. 2. ESTABLISHMENT OF FELONY VIOLATIONS.
Section 228 of title 18, United States Code, is amended to
read as follows:
‘‘§ 228. Failure to pay legal child support obligations
‘‘(a) OFFENSE.—Any person who—
‘‘(1) willfully fails to pay a support obligation with respect
to a child who resides in another State, if such obligation
has remained unpaid for a period longer than 1 year, or is
greater than $5,000;
‘‘(2) travels in interstate or foreign commerce with the
intent to evade a support obligation, if such obligation has
remained unpaid for a period longer than 1 year, or is greater
than $5,000; or
‘‘(3) willfully fails to pay a support obligation with respect
to a child who resides in another State, if such obligation
has remained unpaid for a period longer than 2 years, or
is greater than $10,000;
shall be punished as provided in subsection (c).
‘‘(b) PRESUMPTION.—The existence of a support obligation that
was in effect for the time period charged in the indictment or
information creates a rebuttable presumption that the obligor has
the ability to pay the support obligation for that time period.
‘‘(c) PUNISHMENT.—The punishment for an offense under this
section is—
‘‘(1) in the case of a first offense under subsection (a)(1),
a fine under this title, imprisonment for not more than 6
months, or both; and
‘‘(2) in the case of an offense under paragraph (2) or (3)
of subsection (a), or a second or subsequent offense under
subsection (a)(1), a fine under this title, imprisonment for not
more than 2 years, or both.
‘‘(d) MANDATORY RESTITUTION.—Upon a conviction under this
section, the court shall order restitution under section 3663A in
H. R. 3811—2
an amount equal to the total unpaid support obligation as it exists
at the time of sentencing.
‘‘(e) VENUE.—With respect to an offense under this section,
an action may be inquired of and prosecuted in a district court
of the United States for—
‘‘(1) the district in which the child who is the subject
of the support obligation involved resided during a period dur-
ing which a person described in subsection (a) (referred to
in this subsection as an ‘obliger’) failed to meet that support
obligation;
‘‘(2) the district in which the obliger resided during a period
described in paragraph (1); or
‘‘(3) any other district with jurisdiction otherwise provided
for by law.
‘‘(f) DEFINITIONS.—As used in this section—
‘‘(1) the term ‘Indian tribe’ has the meaning given that
term in section 102 of the Federally Recognized Indian Tribe
List Act of 1994 (25 U.S.C. 479a);
‘‘(2) the term ‘State’ includes any State of the United States,
the District of Columbia, and any commonwealth, territory,
or possession of the United States; and
‘‘(3) the term ‘support obligation’ means any amount deter-
mined under a court order or an order of an administrative
process pursuant to the law of a State or of an Indian tribe
to be due from a person for the support and maintenance
of a child or of a child and the parent with whom the child
is living.’’.
Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Vice President of the United States and
President of the Senate.