C.S.H.B. 2126 78(R) BILL ANALYSIS C.S.H.B. 2126 By: Castro Juvenile Justice & Family Issues Committee Report (Substituted) BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Currently, a registry of the court may accept child support payments only by personal check, cashier's check, money order, and electronic funds transfer. A Harris county attorney's opinion indicated that child support payments could not be made with credit cards, due to the current language of the law that does not specify the use of credit cards. C.S.H.B. 2126 will assist children in need of receiving payments and will improve efficiency in processing child support payments, by authorizing a local registry to accept payments made by credit card, debit card, or automatic teller machine (ATM) card. RULEMAKING AUTHORITY It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution. SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS SECTION 1. Amends Section 154.241, Family Code, by adding Subsection (f) to provide that a local registry may accept child support payments made by credit card, debit card, or automatic teller machine card. SECTION 2.This Act takes effect September 1, 2003. EFFECTIVE DATE September 1, 2003. COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL TO SUBSTITUTE C.S.H.B.2126 modifies the original H.B.2126 by adding new language to authorize a local registry to accept child support payments made by debit card or ATM card.