Child Support Enforcement Amendments of 1983

Child Support Enforcement Amendments of 1983 - Amends part D (Child Support and Establishment of Paternity) to direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to make payments, in addition to those already provided under part D, to any State whose part D program is found to be exemplary in the amount of collections made, the cost efficiency with which the program is operated, or the magnitude of the costs to other assistance programs that could reasonably have been expected to occur but for the operation and the effective performance of the State's program. Repeals the present provisions for incentive payments to States and localities. Reduces Federal funding to States under part D. Eliminates funding for the planning, design, development, installation, or enhancement of an automatic data processing and information retrieval system under part D. Revises provisions of part D relating to the distribution of the amounts collected as child support by a State. Provides: (1) that amounts collected by a State under part D as support for families receiving Aid to Families With Dependent Children (part A of title IV of the Act) shall be paid to the family to the extent that such amounts exceed the amount of AFDC paid to the family but do not exceed the amount of required court ordered support; (2) that amounts in excess of those required to be paid to the family shall be retained by the State to the extent they do not exceed the total amount of AFDC previously paid to the family; and (3) that any balance shall be paid to the family. Authorizes the Secretary to make grants to States to assist in the development or improvement of clearinghouses and other information management systems to aid in the enforcement of support by facilitating the collection and exchange, both within a State and among States, of child support information. Authorizes appropriations for such purposes. Requires charging an application fee of at least $25 for child support or paternity determination services furnished under part D to individual's not otherwise eligible. Provides that the costs of providing collection services may range from three to ten percent of the amount collected. Requires a State under part D to implement procedures providing for: (1) the withholding of child support from wages if a support order has been entered by a State; (2) quasi-judicial or administrative procedures for entering child support orders which have the same force and effect as orders entered by a court; (3) the collection of past-due support from State tax refunds; (4) placing liens on real property for amounts of past-due support. Requires a designee of the Secretary to conduct a review of each State's part D program at least once every three years in order to determine the program's effectiveness and compliance with part D requirement. Requires a State under part A of title IV to have in effect a plan under part D and operate a child support program in substantial compliance (currently, in conformity) with the part D plan. Provides for reduced Federal funding under part A for any State whose part D program is not in compliance. Eliminates the requirement that before a State agency can request information from the Secretary the agency must have determined that the absent parent cannot be located through procedures under the control of the agency. Makes provisions of part A (General Provisions) of title XI of the Act relating to demonstration project authority applicable to part D. Makes modifications in the timing and content of the Secretary's annual part I report to Congress. Requires child support collected by a State on behalf of a child for whom a public agency is making foster care payments under part E (Foster Care and Adoption Assistance) of the Act to be paid to the public agency responsible for supervising placement of the child, to the extent that the amounts collected exceed the monthly foster care maintenance payments but not the monthly amount required by a court of administrative order to be paid on behalf of the child or agreed to by both parents of such child. Requires a State plan under part E to provide that all steps will be taken to secure an assignment to the State of any rights to support on behalf of each child receiving part E foster care maintenance payments.

Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Introduced in Senate" stage on July 27, 1983. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.

Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.