Child Support Improvement Act of 2004

Bill: 108-s-2194
Sponsor: Sen. Cornyn, John [R-TX]
Introduced: 2004-03-11 in the Senate
Policy area: Social Welfare
Subjects: Administrative procedure
Aid to dependent children
Alimony
Armed Forces and National Security
Black lung
Cash welfare block grants
Child health
Child support
Coinsurance
Collection of accounts
Congress
Congressional reporting requirements
Data banks
Department of Health and Human Services
Directories
Disabled
Electronic funds transfers
Electronic government information
Families
Federal-state relations
Finance and Financial Sector
Garnishment
Government Operations and Politics
Grants-in-aid
Health
Health insurance
Identification devices
Immigration
Income tax
Insurance premiums
Intergovernmental fiscal relations
Internet
Interstate relations
Jurisdiction
Labor and Employment
Law
Medicaid
Medical economics
Old age, survivors and disability insurance
Passports
Paternity
Performance measurement
Personnel records
Railroad retirement plans
Science, Technology, Communications
Social security numbers
State courts
Tax refunds
Taxation
Texas
Transportation and Public Works
Unemployment insurance
Veterans' disability compensation
Web sites
Welfare waivers
Women

Summary:
action_date: 2004-03-11
text: 
Child Support Improvement Act of 2004 - Amends parts A (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) (TANF) and D (Child Support and Establishment of Paternity) of title IV of the Social Security Act (SSA) to: (1) modify the rule requiring assignment of support rights as a condition of receiving TANF; (2) increase child support payments to families; (3) revise child support distribution rules; (4) ban the recovery of Medicaid (SSA title XIX) costs for the birth of children for whom support rights have been assigned; and (5) change from mandatory to discretionary the authority of States to retain certain support rights assignments after a certain date (thus giving them the option to discontinue such assignments), and allow to remain assigned any rights assigned before enactment of this Act to a State to support obligations accruing before the date a family first receives TANF (thus giving States the option to discontinue such assignments).
 
Amends part D (Child Support and Establishment of Paternity) of SSA title IV to provide for: (1) a decrease in the amount of child support arrearage triggering passport denial; (2) use of the tax refund intercept program to collect past-due child support on behalf of children who are not minors; (3) garnishment of compensation paid to veterans for service-connected disabilities in order to enforce child support obligations; and (4) revised interstate enforcement. 
 
Requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services to report to specified congressional committees on the procedures States use to locate custodial parents for whom child support has been collected but not yet distributed. 
 
Provides for the use of new hire information to assist in the administration of unemployment compensation programs under SSA title IV part D. 
 
Amends Federal money and finance law to modify Federal debt collection practices. 
 
Amends SSA title IV part D to provide for the maintenance of technical assistance and Federal Parent Locator Service funding. 
 
Provides for the electronic disbursement of child support payments to families.
 
Allows States to expand their State disbursement unit to create a centralized payment location for all child support wage withholding.
 
Directs the Secretary to prescribe regulations to implement the medical support performance measure developed under the Child Support Performance and Incentive Act of 1998.
 

 
Prohibits the Secretary from requiring the State of Texas to apply for a waiver from applicable requirements to continue to operate the State's program for monitoring and enforcement of a child support court order without the necessity of a written application.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2004-03-11
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
action_date: 2004-03-11
text: Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR 3/12/2004 S2720)
action_date: 2004-03-11
text: Introduced in Senate