Opinion ID: 516409
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: 42 U.S.C. Sec. 602(a)(8)(A)(vi)

Text: 30 The Secretary also urges that multiple pass-throughs are precluded by 42 U.S.C. Sec. 602(a)(8)(A)(vi): the State agency ... shall disregard the first $50 of any child support payments received in such month.... In the first place, this section simply does not address the issue of payments for more than one month being received in a single month. In fact, a credible argument could be made that the section merely is addressing situations where many small payments for a single month are made in that same month. (For example, if the monthly support payment is $300 and the absent parent sends three $100 payments in one month, the statute permits only one $50 pass-through and not three $50 pass-throughs for that month). Moreover, when Sec. 602 is read in conjunction with Sec. 657(b)(1), the statute cannot stand for the absolutist proposition that the Secretary is asserting--no multiple pass-throughs under any circumstances. Indeed, the Secretary has taken the position both in the past and in the most recently revised regulations of June 9, 1988 that certain multiple pass-throughs are permitted. (See infra Section IV). The Secretary cannot for the purposes of the instant lawsuit argue that Sec. 602 must be given the most narrowly restrictive interpretation possible to prevent any multiple pass-throughs, and yet, at the same time, effect regulations that permit certain multiple pass-throughs. Once Sec. 602 is seen as not being a complete bar to multiple pass-throughs, a position that the Secretary has conceded both prior to and subsequent to this lawsuit, the validity of the Secretary's reliance on such an argument in the current case simply withers away. As the court in Vanscoter noted: 31 [The] language of Sec. 602(a)(8)(A)(vi) does not establish a congressional intent to allow only one disregard if several pass-throughs are received in one month. HHS has recognized this. In its June 9, 1988 amendment to 45 C.F.R. Sec. 302.51(a), HHS permits multiple disregards of pass-throughs made to an AFDC recipient in one month if each support payment was timely made to a legally accountable public entity. 53 F.R. at 21644. This demonstrates that Sec. 602(a)(8)(A)(vi) does not limit the disregards to one $50 item per month; a fortiori, it cannot be read to limit pass-through entitlements under the clear language of Sec. 657(b)(1). 32 Vanscoter, slip op. at 6-7.