5748625 Resolution 21-278, Uniform Interstate Family Support Emergency Declaration Resolution of 2015

A RESOLUTION

 

21-278

 

IN THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

 

November 3, 2015

 

 

To declare the existence of an emergency with respect to the need to enact the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act, as revised with amendments officially adopted by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws to ensure that the amendments will be in effect prior to January 1, 2016.

 

RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, That this resolution may be cited as the “Uniform Interstate Family Support Emergency Declaration Resolution of 2015”. 

           

            Sec. 2.  (a) On November 23, 2007, the United States signed the Convention on the International Recovery of Child Support and Other Forms of Family Maintenance at the Hague.

            (b) In order to implement the Convention, the Uniform Law Commission drafted the 2008 Amendments to the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act, to be adopted by every state.

            (c) On September 29, 2014, the President signed the Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act, approved September 9, 2014 (Pub. L. No. 113-183; 128 Stat. 1919), which required that the 2008 Amendments to the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act be in effect in each state and the District of Columbia, no later “than the 1st day of the 1st calendar quarter beginning after the close of the 1st regular session of the State legislature that begins after the date of enactment of this Act”, provided that, if a state has a 2-year legislative session, “each year of the session shall be deemed to be a separate regular session of the State legislature.”

            (d) In order to ensure adoption in all states, the Office of Child Support Enforcement in the United States Department of Health and Human Services issued an Action Transmittal which requires states to have the 2008 Revised Uniform Interstate Family Support Act in effect by January 1, 2016, as a prerequisite for continued federal financial support for child support enforcement and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (“TANF”). 

            (e) On September 17, 2015, Juanita Devine, the Regional Program Manager for Region III of the federal Office of Child Support Enforcement, wrote Benidia Rice, the Director of the Child Support Services Division of the Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia, a letter stating that “[a] State must have an approved State IV-D plan in order to receive federal funding under Title IV-D of the [Social Security] Act” and that “a State plan disapproval would result in immediate suspension of all Federal payments for the State’s child support enforcement program.”  She noted that for Fiscal Year 2013, the federal share for the District’s IV-D program, including incentive payments, was $19,912,823.  She also noted that an approved IV-D plan is a condition for eligibility for a TANF block grant and that, for Fiscal Year 2013, the TANF block grant to the District was $92,609,815. 

            (f) The Committee on the Judiciary held a hearing on the permanent legislation, the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act of 2015, passed on 1st reading on November 3, 2015 (Engrossed version of B21-0245), on October 8, 2015, and marked up the bill on October 28, 2015.

 

            Sec. 3.  The Council of the District of Columbia determines that the circumstances enumerated in section 2 constitute emergency circumstances making it necessary that the Uniform Interstate Family Support Emergency Act of 2015 be adopted after a single reading.

 

            Sec. 4.  This resolution shall take effect immediately.