Title: Permanency for Children Act of 2017
Policy area: Social Welfare

Summary:
Permanency for Children Act of 2017
This bill requires the Department of Health and Human Services to modify the Federal Parent Locator Service to allow state agencies that administer responsible-father registries to electronically exchange identifying information of mothers and putative fathers with other states.

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3092 Introduced in House (IH)]

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115th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 3092

 To amend part D of title IV of the Social Security Act to require the 
  Secretary of Health and Human Services to modify the Federal Parent 
     Locator Service to improve search functions and include State 
 responsible father registry search functions, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             June 28, 2017

   Mrs. Hartzler (for herself, Ms. Kuster of New Hampshire, and Mrs. 
  Walorski) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                      Committee on Ways and Means

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend part D of title IV of the Social Security Act to require the 
  Secretary of Health and Human Services to modify the Federal Parent 
     Locator Service to improve search functions and include State 
 responsible father registry search functions, 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 ``Permanency for Children Act of 
2017''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds the following:
            (1) A permanent, stable home is critical for the physical 
        and cognitive development of children, and quickly identifying 
        biological fathers after birth is crucial to providing stable, 
        supportive environments for children of unwed mothers and for 
        permanency for adoptive parents.
            (2) Responsible father registries, sometimes known as 
        putative father registries, help to speed up the stable 
        placement of children by providing a mechanism to determine 
        whether a biological father has a protectable interest in 
        participating in the placement decisions for a child.
            (3) Thirty-four States have created responsible father 
        registries.
            (4) Improving the legal mechanisms for finding biological 
        fathers is a necessary step in the progression toward improving 
        permanency for children.
            (5) In 1975, Congress authorized the creation of the 
        Federal Parent Locator Service (FPLS), which is an assembly of 
        systems designed to assist States in locating noncustodial 
        parents, putative fathers, and custodial parties, for the 
        establishment of paternity and child support obligations.
            (6) Currently, the FPLS can only be searched by social 
        security number or date of birth, which limits the 
        effectiveness of this tool.
            (7) Improving the search functions of the FPLS will allow 
        for more effective use of the database while maintaining 
        important privacy protections to provide expedited permanency 
        for children.
            (8) National cross-referencing of responsible father 
        registries in the FPLS would protect registered fathers against 
        court actions in unknown States where the child or mother may 
        have traveled or where the adoptive parents reside.

SEC. 3. RESPONSIBLE FATHER REGISTRY.

    (a) Requirement To Modify Federal Parent Locator Service.--Section 
453 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 653) is amended by adding at 
the end the following:
    ``(q) Responsible Father Registry.--
            ``(1) In general.--Subject to the preceding provisions of 
        this section, the Secretary shall, in collaboration with the 
        States, modify the Federal Parent Locator Service to improve 
        search functions to allow State agencies administering State 
        responsible father registries to electronically exchange 
        identifying information of mothers and putative fathers of 
        children, and, to the extent possible, to allow a single 
        Federal Parent Locator Service query to search for a putative 
        father registered in any State responsible father registry.
            ``(2) Definition.--In this section, the term `responsible 
        father registry' means a registry for the receipt of 
        information which directly relates to the identity or location 
        of biological fathers who have voluntarily registered to assert 
        their paternal rights to a child they may have fathered out of 
        wedlock.''.
    (b) Report.--Not later than 12 months after the date of the 
enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall submit to Congress a report 
on the implementation of the requirement under section 453(q) of the 
Social Security Act, as added by subsection (a) of this section. Such 
report shall also--
            (1) include a framework to assist States without 
        responsible father registries in setting up such a State 
        registry or coordinating with an existing such State registry;
            (2) provide direction to States with existing State 
        responsible father registries on best practices for improving 
        efficiencies of such registries; and
            (3) identify administrative and legislative options for 
        ensuring every putative father has access to the protections of 
        a responsible father registry regardless of the State or 
        territory in which the father resides.

SEC. 4. PARTIES AUTHORIZED TO ACCESS FEDERAL PARENT LOCATOR SERVICE.

    (a) State Responsible Father Registries.--Section 453(c)(4) of the 
Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 653(c)(4)) is amended by inserting ``, 
or that is administering a State responsible father registry'' after 
``part E''.
    (b) Adoption and Dependency Courts.--Section 453(c)(2) of such Act 
(42 U.S.C. 653(c)(2)) is amended--
            (1) by striking ``the court'' and inserting ``any court''; 
        and
            (2) by inserting ``or an action relating to the dependency 
        or adoption of a child,'' after ``maintenance of a child,''.
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