Child support is the cash payment that a noncustodial parent is obligated to pay for the financial support of his or her children. All 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands operate Child Support Enforcement (CSE) programs. Historically, states were required to provide CSE services to members of Indian tribes and tribal organizations who were part of their CSE caseloads. Although tribes were not specifically included in the CSE statute until the 1996 welfare reform law, several tribes had negotiated agreements (e.g., informal, cooperative, intergovernmental, and joint powers) with some states in a mutual effort to serve Native American children. The 1996 welfare reform law ( P.L. 104-193 ) allowed direct federal funding of approved tribal CSE programs. As of April 20, 2016, there were 61 tribal CSE programs. (See Table B -1 and Table B -2 .) The Indian tribes or tribal organizations with tribal CSE programs are listed in the text box on the next page and are shown on the map in Figure 1 . In FY2014, the 57 tribes or tribal organizations with comprehensive CSE programs distributed over $36 million in total child support collections in FY2014 to 50,892 cases in the CSE tribal program. Only federally recognized tribes and tribal organizations are eligible to operate tribal CSE programs. As of March 2016, there are 566 federally recognized Indian tribes. Although tribal CSE programs do not have to have a court system per se, they are required to have either a judicial or administrative system to hear, establish, and enforce child support orders. Moreover, tribal CSE programs are required to ensure that the due process rights of participants are protected. According to the federal Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), it may be necessary to make adjustments to an existing court system or to develop an administrative process under a start-up tribal CSE program. However, according to OCSE, when a tribe applies for funding to operate a comprehensive tribal CSE program, it must demonstrate that the judicial or administrative process is sufficient to establish and enforce child support orders. Thus, the universe of tribes that are potentially eligible to operate a tribal CSE program may not be as high as 566 because the tribe must have a court system (which about 298 tribes have) or an administrative system. The number of potentially eligible tribes is further reduced because tribes must have at least 100 children under their jurisdiction, and many tribes do not meet this requirement. Because sufficient demographic and social statistics on Indian tribal members are not collected by federal or other entities, it is difficult to estimate how many children under tribal jurisdiction are not covered by tribal CSE programs. Most estimates are derived from Census counts, which are based on race, not tribal membership. (See the discussion under " Data " below.) One estimate based on American Community Survey (ACS) racial data found that, in 2014, about 53% of the 631,831 American Indian and Alaska Native children (i.e., roughly 335,000 children) were living with only one of their parents. In 2014, about 66% of American Indian and Alaska Native children were born to unmarried women (again, according to race). This report provides a brief legislative history of CSE provisions related to tribes, presents basic information on tribal CSE programs, describes the information that tribal CSE programs must contain in order to be approved for federal funding, displays data on current tribal CSE programs, and discusses issues related to ensuring that Native American children receive the child support to which they are entitled. The report also includes three appendices. Appendix A includes six tables that arrange each tribe according to its ranking in FY2014 on several CSE program features or indicators. Appendix B displays FY2016 information that shows the 57 comprehensive tribal CSE programs. It also names the four start-up tribal CSE programs. Appendix C shows estimates of total population for each tribe that operates a tribal CSE program. The CSE program was enacted in 1975 as a federal-state program (Title IV-D of the Social Security Act) to help strengthen families by securing financial support for children from their noncustodial parent on a consistent and continuing basis and by helping some families to remain self-sufficient and off public assistance. The mission of the CSE program has shifted and expanded over the years. It has evolved from being a program primarily focused on welfare cost recovery to a program that focuses more on enhancing the well-being of children by obtaining child support from noncustodial parents and by emphasizing the personal responsibility of both parents to their children. Child support payments enable parents who do not live with their children to fulfill their financial responsibility to their children by contributing to the payment of childrearing costs. The CSE program currently provides seven major services on behalf of children: (1) parent location, (2) paternity establishment, (3) establishment of child support orders, (4) review and modification of child support orders, (5) enforcement/collection of child support payments, (6) distribution of child support payments, and (7) establishment and enforcement of medical support. The CSE program serves both families that receive Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) benefits and those who do not. All 50 states and four jurisdictions (the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands) operate CSE programs. In addition, 61 tribes or tribal organizations have CSE programs. The CSE program is administered by the federal Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE), which is in the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). In the early days of child support enforcement, states were required to cooperate in interstate CSE cases, but problems arose stemming from the autonomy of local courts. Family law traditionally had been under the jurisdiction of state and local governments, and citizens fell under the jurisdiction of the courts where they lived. Thus, when parents lived in different states, conflicts arose with regard to which state's rules applied to the case in question. During the 1930s and 1940s, domestic/family law under the jurisdiction of state and local courts was used to establish and enforce child support obligations when the noncustodial parent, custodial parent, and child lived in the same state. But when noncustodial parents lived out of state, enforcing child support was cumbersome and ineffective. Often, the only option in those cases was to extradite the noncustodial parent and, when successful, jail the person for nonpayment of child support. This procedure, which was rarely used, generally punished the delinquent noncustodial parent, but it left the abandoned family without financial support. Even up until the late 1990s, many commentators and CSE staff said that interstate cases were the most difficult child support orders to enforce. Others, however, noted that when a child support case involved a Native American child, the case moved to another level of complexity. Before enactment of the 1996 welfare reform law ( P.L. 104-193 ), the CSE statute placed the authority to administer the delivery of CSE services solely with the states. However, within much of Indian country, the authority of state and local governments was very limited or nonexistent. Thus, states were limited in their ability to provide CSE services on tribal lands and, vice versa, Indian families had difficulty obtaining CSE services from the state CSE programs. Pursuant to the Constitution, numerous court decisions, and federal law, Indian tribes have the authority to make and enforce laws, to adjudicate civil and criminal disputes (including domestic relations cases), to tax, and to license, regarding members and other Indians within their jurisdictions. State power is limited unless Congress has authorized it. Therefore, prior to the 1996 welfare reform legislation, states that attempted to provide CSE services on tribal lands were restricted in their authority to establish paternity and to establish and enforce child support orders. During the pre-1996 period, cooperative agreements between Indian tribes and states were the primary method by which Indian children (especially those living on reservations) received CSE services. This section describes federal laws relating to child support that specifically mention Indian tribes and tribal organizations. In 1994, P.L. 103-383 (the Federal Full Faith and Credit for Child Support Orders Act) was enacted. Section 3(a) of the 1994 act required a state to recognize and enforce another state's child support order. "State" is defined as "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 Section 1151 of Title 18 of the U.S. Code)." Therefore, states and tribes are required to recognize and enforce valid tribal child support orders, without regard to whether such orders were issued by a state or tribal court or agency. In 1996, P.L. 104-193 (the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996) included two CSE provisions pertaining to Indian tribes. First, it allowed states to enter into cooperative agreements with Indian tribes and tribal organizations, and second, it authorized the HHS Secretary to provide direct federal funding to Indian tribes. The 1996 law allowed any state that has Indian country (as defined in 18 U.S.C. 1151) within its borders to enter into a cooperative agreement with an Indian tribe or tribal organization if the tribe demonstrated that it had an established tribal court system with the authority to establish paternity, and establish, modify, and enforce child support orders. In addition, P.L. 104-193 gave the HHS Secretary the authority to make direct payments to Indian tribes that have approved CSE programs.