BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 646
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Date of Hearing: July 8, 2015
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Jimmy Gomez, Chair
SB 646
(Jackson) - As Amended June 24, 2015
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Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program: YesReimbursable:
Yes
SUMMARY: This bill revises and recasts the Uniform Interstate
Family Support Act (UIFSA) to conform, verbatim, to the federal
UIFSA as required by federal law, and designates the Department
of Child Support Services (DCSS) as the California agency
SB 646
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responsible for enforcing child support payments for interstate,
tribal, and international cases.
FISCAL EFFECT:
Requiring the state to enforce child support orders across state
and national borders could result in increased workload for DCSS
and local child support agencies. It is anticipated that the
overall number of cases will increase should the bill be signed,
but the extent of the increase is unknown. Likely fiscal impacts
include:
1)Unknown, potentially significant increase in DCSS
administrative costs (GF/Federal Fund) associated with payment
redirect requests from interstate cases.
2)Unknown, potentially significant one-time automation costs
(GF/Federal Fund) for necessary automation changes to the
Child Support Enforcement (CSE) system to process
international child support orders.
3)Unknown, likely minor state-reimbursable costs (General Fund)
to local child support agencies for increased administrative
workload.
4)Unknown, potentially significant increase in annual child
support collections to the extent adoption of UIFSA 2008
results in a greater number of child support orders and/or
increases in child support collection amounts.
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5)Adoption of UIFSA 2008 would enable the State to retain
continued receipt of approximately $680 million (Federal Fund)
annually in federal child support payments.
COMMENTS:
1)Purpose. The author states, "Currently, California is
operating under UIFSA 1996. All states and U.S. Territories
must enact UIFSA 2008 by January 1, 2016 in order to comply
with the federal mandate. If UIFSA 2008 is not enacted, this
will affect California's federal funding."
The bill is sponsored by the Department of Child Support
Services. They indicate that "SB 646 will help ensure that a
child gets the financial support they need regardless of where
they reside. The bill synchronizes the provisions of UIFSA
with the 2007 Hague Convention, enabling international child
support cases to move forward upon ratification. Finally, the
bill would protect California from hundreds of millions of
dollars in penalties and ensure that California law does not
pose any impediments to the ability of the United States to
ratify the treaty of the Convention."
2)Background. UIFSA is a comprehensive model act focused on
intergovernmental establishment, modification, and enforcement
of child support obligations. It was first developed by the
National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws in
1992, amended in 1996, 2001, and again in 2008. All states
were required to enact the 1996 version of UIFSA in 1998 as a
condition of receiving federal funds for child support
enforcement. UIFSA, at least as amended in 1996, is currently
law in all 50 states.
In September of 2014, Congress passed, and the President
signed into law, the Preventing Sex Trafficking and
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Strengthening Families Act. That Act requires that all states
adopt the 2008 updated version of UIFSA, verbatim, by the end
of their 2015 legislative session as a condition of continued
child support program funding. Accordingly, this bill would
repeal California's existing version of UIFSA, and replace it
verbatim with the 2008 version as required by federal law.
3)Prior Legislation.
a) AB 2934 (Wayne), Chap. 349, Stats. 2002, made
substantive and procedural amendments to UIFSA, which were
to become effective only if Congress mandated that states
adopt UIFSA as revised in 2001, or California received a
waiver to operate under UIFSA 2001.
b) SB 568 (Sher), Chap. 194, Stats. 1997, enacted UIFSA
2006 in California.
Analysis Prepared by:Jennifer Swenson / APPR. / (916)
319-2081