BILL ANALYSIS |
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C.S.H.B. 3538 |
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By: Smithee |
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Judiciary & Civil Jurisprudence |
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Committee Report (Substituted) |
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BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
In 2014, Congress passed the Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act, which required all states to adopt the 2008 amendments to the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act during each state's 2015 legislative session. Failure to do so could result in immediate suspension of all federal payments for that state's child support enforcement program. C.S.H.B. 3538 seeks to avoid the loss of important federal funding by enacting the required amendments to the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act.
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CRIMINAL JUSTICE IMPACT
It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly create a criminal offense, increase the punishment for an existing criminal offense or category of offenses, or change the eligibility of a person for community supervision, parole, or mandatory supervision.
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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.
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ANALYSIS
C.S.H.B. 3538 amends provisions of the Family Code relating to the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act to conform to recent amendments to the act required by the Hague Convention on the International Recovery of Child Support and Other Forms of Family Maintenance. The bill requires a tribunal of this state to apply statutory provisions governing jurisdiction and civil provisions in proceedings relating to a support order or to determine parentage, the authority to establish a support order or determination of parentage, the enforcement of an order without registration and the registration, enforcement, and modification of a support order, and, as applicable, provisions governing a support proceeding under the Convention established by the bill to a support proceeding involving a foreign support order, a foreign tribunal, or an obligee, obligor, or child residing in a foreign country. The bill authorizes a tribunal of this state that is requested to recognize and enforce a support order on the basis of comity to apply the procedural and substantive provisions of the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act. The bill defines "foreign country" as a country, including a political subdivision thereof, other than the United States, that authorizes the issuance of support orders and which has been declared under the law of the United States to be a foreign reciprocating country; which has established a reciprocal arrangement for child support with Texas; which has enacted a law or established procedures for the issuance and enforcement of support orders which are substantially similar to the procedures under the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act; or in which the Convention is in force with respect to the United States.
C.S.H.B. 3538 clarifies, for purposes of the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act, that the office of the attorney general is the support enforcement agency of Texas. The bill provides for the continuing, exclusive jurisdiction of a tribunal of this state to modify a controlling child support order issued by the tribunal with the consent of the parties even if Texas is not the residence of the obligor, the individual obligee, or the child for whose benefit the support order is issued. The bill authorizes a responding tribunal of this state to order an obligor to inform the tribunal of the obligor's current electronic mail address and provides for certain electronic communication relating to a proceeding. The bill specifies that the authority to issue a support order, under certain conditions, that is entitled to recognition under the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act but that has not been issued resides with a responding tribunal of this state with personal jurisdiction over the parties. The bill authorizes a tribunal of this state authorized to determine parentage of a child to serve as a responding tribunal in a proceeding to determine parentage of a child brought under the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act or a law or procedure substantially similar to that act. The bill includes the address of the obligee among the information that must be sent to a tribunal in this state in order to register a support order or income-withholding order of another state or a foreign support order. The bill creates an exception to the requirement that the notice sent to a nonregistering party with the copy of a registered support or income-withholding order issued in another state include information relating to a hearing to contest the validity or enforcement of the order if the order is a contested Convention support order. The bill specifies that a tribunal of this state retains jurisdiction to modify an order issued by the tribunal if one party resides in another state and the other party resides outside of the United States. The bill sets out the procedure by which a party or support enforcement agency seeking to modify or to modify and enforce a foreign child support order not under the Convention may register that order in Texas if the order has not been registered.
C.S.H.B. 3538 sets out provisions governing support proceedings under the Hague Convention on the International Recovery of Child Support and Other Forms of Family Maintenance and establishes the office of the attorney general of Texas as the agency designated by the secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services to perform specific functions under the Convention. The bill requires the office of the attorney general, in a support proceeding under the Convention, to transmit and receive applications and to initiate or facilitate the institution of a proceeding regarding an application in a tribunal of this state. The bill sets out the provisions regarding the types of support proceedings available to an obligee and to an obligor under the Convention, procedures for filing a direct request for seeking establishment or modification of a support order or determination of parentage of a child, registration of and procedures for contesting a Convention support order, recognition and enforcement of a registered Convention support order or a foreign support agreement, partial enforcement of a Convention support order, and modification of a Convention child support order. The bill limits the use of personal information gathered or transmitted for purposes of a Convention support proceeding and requires a record filed with a tribunal of this state in such a proceeding to be in the original language and, if not in English, to be accompanied by an English translation.
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EFFECTIVE DATE
July 1, 2015, or, if the bill does not receive the necessary vote, the 91st day after the last day of the legislative session. |
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COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE
While C.S.H.B. 3538 may differ from the original in minor or nonsubstantive ways, the following comparison is organized and formatted in a manner that indicates the substantial differences between the introduced and committee substitute versions of the bill.
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