Enrolled Bill Summary

            Senate Bill 1594 amends the Family Code to specify procedures for collecting the domestic relations office operations fee for certain suits affecting the parent-child relationship; to make permissive the previous requirement that a local registry submit child support payments to an obligee by electronic funds transfer; and to permit a capias to be forwarded to and disseminated by the Texas Crime Information Center and the National Crime Information Center. The act adds the requirement that child support and arrearages be paid as a condition of community supervision in cases affecting the parent-child relationship; establishes when interest begins to accrue for certain child support payments; adds requirements for employers remitting withheld child support payments; and allows, rather than requires, a friend of the court to file an action to enforce a court order relating to child support or possession of or access to a child. It permits a domestic relations office to hire or contract for an attorney; requires the attorney general's office to distribute child support payments from employers within two working days after receipt; and specifies that issuing a bad check for a child support payment is a Class B misdemeanor. The provisions related to electronic funds transfer of child support payments and the requirements for employers remitting payments take effect January 1, 1998. All other provisions take effect September 1, 1997.