HBA-LCA C.S.H.B. 1884 76(R)BILL ANALYSIS Office of House Bill AnalysisC.S.H.B. 1884 By: Grusendorf Juvenile Justice & Family Issues 4/15/1999 Committee Report (Substituted) BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE To ensure that child support enforcement and collection efforts are conducted efficiently, counties may need access to certain information provided at the state and federal level. Additionally, the federal government has mandated that the states adopt standardized systems of enforcement and collection. C.S.H.B. 1884 modifies the statute that requires the employer of an obligor to comply with child support collection efforts. It allows domestic relations officers or friends of the court, who operate at a county level, to retrieve information from state and federal registries. C.S.H.B. 1884 also provides that the Title IV-D agency, which is the Office of the Attorney General, must pay for the costs of establishing and maintaining the state registry and disbursement unit. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution. SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS SECTION 1. Amends Section 158.203(b), Family Code, to require an employer to include with each payment transmitted the payor's social security number, and the payee's social security number if it is available, unless the payment is transmitted electronically. SECTION 2. Amends Section 158.206(b), Family Code, to provide that an employer who does not comply with an order or writ of withholding is liable to the obligor for interest that accrues under Section 157.265, Family Code (Accrual of Interest on Child Support). SECTION 3. Amends Chapter 158, Family Code, by adding Section 158.212, as follows: Sec. 158.212. IMPROPER PAYMENT. Requires an employer who has remitted an improper payment to remit payment to the Title IV-D agency (agency) or person identified in the order of withholding within two working days after receiving the returned payment. SECTION 4. Amends Section 203.004(a)(4), Family Code, by adding Paragraph (B) to authorize a domestic relations officer to provide an informal forum in which an agreed repayment schedule for delinquent child support is negotiated as an alternative to filing a suit to enforce a court order under Subdivision (3), and to make conforming changes. SECTION 5. Amends Section 203.007, Family Code, by amending Subsections (a) and (f) through (j), and adding Subsections (d) and (e), as follows: (a) Makes conforming and nonsubstantive changes. (d) Entitles a domestic relations office, to the extent provided by federal law, to obtain from the national directory of new hires established under 42 U.S.C. Section 653(i), as amended, records that relate to a person described under Subsection (a). Specifies certain information to which those records may relate. (e) Entitles a domestice relations office, to the extent provided by federal law, to obtain from the state case registry records that relate to a person described by Subsection (a). Specifies certain information to which those records may relate. (f)-(j) Redesignated from existing Subsections (e)-(h). SECTION 6. Amends Section 231.303(d), Family Code, to authorizes the agency to disclose information in compliance with Section 233.001, Family Code (Request for Information). SECTION 7. Amends Section 233.001, Family Code, as follows: Sec. 233.001. REQUEST FOR INFORMATION. (a) Makes conforming changes. (b) Removes friends of the court and domestic relations officers from the list of entities to whom the state case registry is required to give certain information. (c) Requires the state case registry, to the extent provided by federal law, to provide certain information to a friend of the court or a domestic relations office under Subsection (a). SECTION 8. Amends Section 233.003, Family Code, to make a conforming change. SECTION 9. Amends Subchapter A, Chapter 234, as added by Section 94, Chapter 911, Acts of the 75th Legislature, Regular Session, 1997, Family Code, by amending Section 234.001 and adding Section 234.006, as follows: Sec. 234.001. ESTABLISHMENT AND OPERATION OF UNIFIED REGISTRY AND DISBURSEMENT UNIT. (a) Created from existing text. Makes conforming changes. (b) Makes conforming changes. (c) Requires the state disbursement unit (unit) to maintain child support payments made through the state. Specifies certain information the unit is required to make available to a local registry each day, including the cause number of the suit under which withholding is required, the names and social security numbers of the payor and the payee, if available, the date the unit received the payment, the amount of the payment, and the instrument identification, as provided under Section 234.004. Makes conforming changes. Sec. 234.006 RETURN OF PAYMENTS. Requires the state disbursement unit to distribute a payment, within two working days after its receipt, to the agency or the obligee. Requires the state disbursement unit to return the payment within five working days if it does not process child support payments for the case, or has insufficient information to identify the case for which the payment is made. SECTION 10. Effective date: September 1, 1999 Makes application of this Act prospective. SECTION 11. Emergency clause. COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL TO SUBSTITUTE The substitute modifies the original by adding new SECTION 1, which amends Section 158.203(b), Family Code (Remitting Withheld Payments) to require an employer to include social security numbers with a child payment. Original SECTION 1 is redesignated to SECTION 2 in the substitute. SECTION 3 of the original, which added Section 202.006, Family Code, relating to the payment of fees to a friend of the court, is deleted. SECTION 3 of the substitute is redesignated from SECTION 2 of the original. SECTION 5 of the original, which amended Section 203.007, Family Code (Duty of Local Offices and Regions to Report), is deleted. SECTION 7 of the original, which authorizes the agency to disclose information to comply with Section 233.001, Family Code (Request for Information) is redesignated to SECTION 6 of the substitute. The substitute deletes SECTION 6 of the original, which amended Section 231.205, Family Code (Limitations on Liability of Attorney General for Authorized Fees and Costs), to require the agency to submit an appropriations request, and made the agency liable for fees unless it had submitted such a request. SECTION 7 of the substitute, which amends Section 233.001, Family Code, regarding the provision of information to certain entities, is redesignated from SECTION 8 of the original. SECTION 8 of the substitute, which amends Section 233.003, Family Code, to make a conforming change, is redesignated from SECTION 9 of the original. SECTION 9 of the substitute is redesignated from SECTION 10 of the original. In SECTION 9, the substitute modifies the original by amending Subchapter A, Chapter 234, Family Code, as added by Acts of the 75th Legislature, 1997, ch. 911, Sec. 04 (Competitive Bidding for Child Support Collection Services), to require the state case registry and state disbursement unit to transfer certain specified information daily to a local registry. SECTION 10 of the substitute, which provides the effective date and makes the Act prospective, is redesignated from SECTION 11 of the original. SECTION 11 of the substitute (emergency clause) is redesignated from SECTION 12 of the original.