BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



          SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                             Senator Ricardo Lara, Chair
                                2015 - 2016  Regular 

          SB 646 (Jackson) - Uniform Interstate Family Support part
          
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          |Version: February 27, 2015      |Policy Vote: JUD. 7 - 0         |
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          |Urgency: No                     |Mandate: Yes                    |
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          |Hearing Date: April 20, 2015    |Consultant: Jolie Onodera       |
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          This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File. 

          

          Bill  
          Summary:  SB 646 would revise and recast the Uniform Interstate  
          Family Support Act (UIFSA) to provide guidelines for the  
          registration, recognition, enforcement, and modification of  
          interstate, tribal, and international child support orders, as  
          specified. This bill would identify the Department of Child  
          Support Services (DCSS) as the designated agency to perform  
          functions as specified in the UIFSA.


          Fiscal  
          Impact:  
           Potentially significant increase in DCSS administrative costs  
            in excess of $150,000 (General Fund/Federal Fund) annually.
           Unknown, potentially significant one-time automation costs  
            (General Fund/Federal Fund) for necessary automation changes  
            to the Child Support Enforcement (CSE) system to process  
            international child support orders.
           Potentially significant increase in annual child support  
            collections to the extent adoption of UIFSA 2008 results in a  







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            greater number of child support orders and/or increases in  
            child support collection amounts.
           Potentially significant state-reimbursable costs (General  
            Fund) to local child support agencies for increased  
            administrative workload associated with the implementation of  
            UIFSA 2008. 
           Adoption of UIFSA 2008 would enable the State to retain  
            continued receipt of approximately $680 million (Federal Fund)  
            annually in federal child support payments.


          Background:  The UIFSA governs the establishment, enforcement, and  
          modification of interstate child and spousal support orders by  
          providing jurisdictional standards and rules for determining  
          which state's order is controlling and whether a tribunal of  
          this state may exercise continuing, exclusive jurisdiction over  
          a support proceeding. The UIFSA was first developed by the  
          National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws in  
          1992, was amended in 1996, 2001, and 2008. All states were  
          required to enact UIFSA in 1998 as a condition to receive  
          federal funds for family support enforcement. As a result, UIFSA  
          is currently state law in all 50 states and jurisdictions.
          The UIFSA 2008: 1) allows states to redirect support payments to  
          a new state when all parties have left the state that originally  
          issued a support order; 2) requires courts to permit  
          out-of-state parties to appear telephonically in proceedings to  
          establish, modify, or enforce a support order; and, 3) allows  
          for the provision of child support services to residents of  
          other countries pursuant to the 2007 Hague Convention on the  
          International Recovery of Child Support and Other Forms of  
          Maintenance. 

          On September 29, 2014, the President signed into law the  
          Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act  
          (Public Law (P.L.) 113-183), that among its provisions, requires  
          the adoption of the UIFSA 2008 verbatim by all states by the end  
          of each state's 2015 legislative session as a condition of  
          continued federal child support program funding. This bill seeks  
          to address this federal provision of law. 


          Proposed Law:  
           This bill would repeal the 1996 and 2001 versions of the UIFSA,  
          and adopt the 2008 version of the UIFSA, as required by P.L.  








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          113-183, in order to retain continued federal child support  
          program funding. Specified provisions of the bill include:

                 Clarifies that a state loses continuing, exclusive  
               jurisdiction if the parties agree, in writing, for another  
               state to assume jurisdiction.

                 Requires tribunals to permit a party or a witness  
               residing in another state to participate in a proceeding  
               telephonically, by audiovisual means, or any other  
               electronic means designated by the tribunal.

                 Requires, upon the request of the appropriate agency,  
               the issuing state agency to redirect payments to the agency  
               in the obligee's state and issue an administrative notice  
               of change to the obligor's employer that reflects the  
               redirected payments.

                 Provides the framework for the exchange of cases between  
               parties to the 2007 Hague Convention, as follows:

                  o         Prescribes the role and responsibilities of  
                    central authorities in Convention countries;

                  o         Expands the ability to challenge a Convention  
                    support order upon registration in this state;

                  o         Requires the state to seek to establish a new  
                    support order if the registration of a Convention  
                    support order is denied, without further request from  
                    the other country.


          Related  
          Legislation:  AB 2934 (Wayne) Chapter 349/2002 made substantive  
          and procedural changes to the Uniform Interstate Family Support  
          Act.
          SB 568 (Sher) Chapter 194/1997 enacted the Uniform Interstate  
          Family Support Act.



          Staff  
          Comments:  This bill would require the DCSS to enforce child  








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          support payments for interstate, tribal, and international cases  
          upon the signing of an international Hague treaty agreement.  
          Enforcing child support orders consistently with other  
          jurisdictions for these more complex cases may increase the  
          level of child support collections and may also increase the  
          cost to administer the program.  

          The DCSS has indicated that the extent of the new international  
          and interstate case workload is unknown at this time due to  
          limited data regarding the number of potential new cases  
          California would receive from other states, tribes, and  
          internationally. It is anticipated that the overall number of  
          international cases will increase upon the signing of an  
          international Hague Treaty agreement, however, the volume of  
          cases is unknown at this time and would be disbursed across  
          local child support agencies (LCSAs) statewide. 

          To the extent the provisions of this bill increase the duties of  
          LCSAs, the costs associated with these additional duties would  
          potentially be reimbursable by the state (General Fund).  
          Although the adoption of UIFSA 2008 is required by federal law  
          in order to retain continued federal child support program  
          funding, the adoption of UIFSA 2008 is technically not a federal  
          mandate (although the practical effect is the same), as the  
          federal government is not requiring states to adopt UIFSA 2008,  
          but rather makes federal funding contingent upon adoption of  
          UIFSA 2008.     

          Increased workload on DCSS operations associated with payment  
          redirect requests from interstate cases and forms revisions  
          relative to the interstate UIFSA 2008 are expected to result in  
          the need for additional resources. While the extent of this need  
          is unknown at this time, the DCSS has indicated an assessment  
          for additional resources will be conducted once information on  
          nature and volume of the increased workload is available. 

          The provisions of this bill would require changes to the Child  
          Support Enforcement (CSE) system to process international child  
          support orders. The impact on the CSE system would depend on the  
          eventual design of the new international portal for processing  
          cases and the level of effort required for DCSS to comply with  
          the new system and the volume of cases received. As the nature  
          and size of the required changes to the CSE are unknown at this  
          time, the costs cannot be known with certainty but are  








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          potentially significant.

          The DCSS has indicated that failure to enact the provisions of  
          this measure during the 2015-16 Legislative session may put  
          approximately $680 million in annual federal child support  
          funding that the State receives at risk.


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