The Child Support Enforcement (CSE) program was enacted in 1975 as a federal-state program (Title IV-D of the Social Security Act, P.L. 93-647 ). It is intended to help strengthen families by securing financial support for children from t heir noncustodial parent on a consistent and continuing basis and by helping some of these families to remain self-sufficient and off public assistance. Child support payments enable parents who do not live with their children to fulfill their financial responsibility to them by contributing to the payment of childrearing costs. When the program was first established its goals were to reimburse the states and the federal government for the welfare payments they provided families, in addition to helping families obtain consistent and ongoing child support payments from the noncustodial parent and helping some of these families remain self-sufficient and stay off welfare. Many commentators agree that the mission of the CSE program has changed over the years. It began as a program to recover the costs of providing cash welfare (AFDC ) to families with children. The amendments in the 1980s broadened the mission to reflect service delivery to both welfare and non-welfare families. Some commentators assert that the service-delivery goal was reemphasized in the 1996 welfare reform legislation, which established the "family first" policy. To help ensure that former welfare recipients stay off the TANF rolls, the "family first" policy requires that such families are to receive any child support arrearage payments collected by the state before the state and federal governments retain their share of collections. Moreover, it is widely agreed that since the late 1990s the CSE program has been effective in improving the well-being of families by making child support a more reliable source of income. The CSE program provides services to both welfare families (who are automatically enrolled free of charge) and non-welfare families (who must sign up and pay an application fee). Families who have never received welfare must also pay a $25 annual user fee if the CSE agency collects at least $500 per year for them. The program provides seven major services on behalf of children: (1) locating absent/noncustodial parents, (2) establishing paternity, (3) establishing child support orders, (4) reviewing and modifying child support orders, (5) collecting child support payments, (6) distributing child support payments, and (7) establishing and enforcing support for children's medical needs. All 50 states and four jurisdictions (the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands) operate CSE programs. They are generally operated at the county level of government. In addition, about 60 tribal nations operate CSE programs. The CSE program is administered by the federal Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE), which is in the Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS's) Administration for Children and Families (ACF). The federal government reimburses each state for 66% of all allowable expenditures on CSE activities. The federal government's funding is "open-ended," in that it pays its percentage of expenditures by matching the amounts spent by state and local governments with no upper limit or ceiling. Moreover, states collect child support on behalf of families receiving TANF to reimburse themselves (and the federal government) for the cost of TANF cash payments to the family. Federal law requires families who receive TANF cash assistance to assign their child support rights to the state in order to receive TANF (i.e., child support payments go to the state instead of the family, except for amounts that states choose to "pass through" to the family as additional income that does not affect TANF eligibility or benefit amounts). In addition, such families must cooperate with the state if necessary to establish paternity and secure child support. The federal government also gives states an incentive payment to encourage them to operate effective CSE programs. Federal law requires states to reinvest CSE incentive payments back into the CSE program or related activities. Child support collection methods used by state CSE agencies include income withholding; intercept of federal and state income tax refunds; intercept of unemployment compensation; liens against property; reporting child support obligations to credit bureaus; intercept of lottery winnings; sending insurance settlement information to CSE agencies; authority to withhold or suspend driver's licenses, professional licenses, and recreational and sporting licenses of persons who owe past-due support; and authority to seize assets of debtor parents held by public or private retirement funds and financial institutions. Federal law authorizes the Secretary of State to deny, revoke, or restrict passports of debtor parents. All jurisdictions also have civil or criminal contempt-of-court procedures and criminal nonsupport laws, and federal criminal penalties may be imposed in certain cases. Federal law requires states to enact and implement the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act (UIFSA) and expand full faith and credit procedures, and it also provides for international enforcement of child support. The CSE program has the potential to impact more children and for longer periods of time than most other federal programs. In FY2014, the program served 16.3 million children (22% of the 73.6 million children in the United States). Total CSE expenditures amounted to $5.7 billion and the program collected $28.2 billion in child support payments from noncustodial parents. The CSE program collected $5.25 for every $1 it spent in that year. According to Census Bureau data, 29% of custodial families have income below the federal poverty level. Child support represented 49% of family income for poor custodial families that received it. As noted, the CSE program began in part as a "welfare cost-recovery" program. For many years the program has been an integral part of helping families escape poverty. As part of its oversight duties, Congress periodically examines the effectiveness and efficiency of the CSE program. This report provides a description of the individual CSE provisions contained in the initial CSE law in 1975 and the changes and reforms to the program that occurred in the nearly 50 subsequent laws that included CSE provisions. Since the late 1800s, state courts have allowed some newly divorced women to recover child support directly from their ex-spouses. However, it was not until 1950 that the federal government took its first steps into the child support arena. Despite legislation in 1950, as well as limited legislation in 1965 (P.L. 89-97) and 1967 (P.L.90-248), the number of families resorting to public welfare (i.e., the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program) continued to increase. By the early 1970s, Congress realized that the composition of the AFDC caseload had changed drastically. In earlier years, the majority of children needed financial assistance because their fathers had died; by the 1970s, the majority needed aid because their parents were separated, divorced, or had never married. Up until the mid-1970s, there was a fierce tug-of-war between the federal government and the states over child support. States maintained that child support was a family issue and it should be dealt with in the privacy of the family court system at the local level of government. In contrast, the federal government maintained that the high cost of supporting welfare families who had been abandoned by a parent, usually because fathers were not meeting their financial responsibility to support their children, made it a federal issue. In effect, the federal government won the debate. The CSE program was signed into law by President Ford in January 1975 as part of the Social Services Amendments of 1974 ( P.L. 93-647 ). The program was a response by Congress intended to reduce public expenditures on welfare, namely AFDC, by obtaining child support from noncustodial parents on an ongoing basis and by helping nonwelfare families get support so they could stay off welfare. Another goal of the program was to establish paternity for children born outside of marriage so that child support could be obtained for them. The CSE program is considered a federal-state program because it is financed in part by the federal government with federal rules and regulations but it is operated by the states. The chief sponsor of the 1975 CSE legislation was Senator Russell Long, who was at the time the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. During the debate on the CSE legislation, Senator Long stated: Should our welfare system be made to support the children whose father cavalierly abandons them—or chooses not to marry the mother in the first place? Is it fair to ask the American taxpayer—who works hard to support his own family and, to carry his own burden—to carry the burden of the deserting father as well? Perhaps we cannot stop the father from abandoning his children, but we can certainly improve the system by obtaining child support from him and thereby place the burden of caring for his children on his own shoulders where it belongs. We can—and we must—take the financial reward out of desertions. President Ford expressed "reservations" when he signed the enacting legislation. While supporting the objectives of the amendments, he contended that certain provisions "go too far by injecting the Federal Government into domestic relations." He complained of "serious privacy and administrative issues," and promised to propose legislation to correct defects. In subsequent years, as Congress made changes to the CSE program, many presidents expressed support for holding parents accountable with respect to financially taking care of their children. Ten years after President Ford expressed his reservations regarding the CSE program, such concerns had for all intents and purposes disappeared. The Child Support Enforcement Amendments of 1984, P.L. 98-378 , were passed by the House unanimously on November 16, 1983, and by the Senate unanimously on April 24, 1984.