Family Support Act of 1995

Summary

TABLE OF CONTENTS: Title I: Strengthening the JOBS Program Title II: Aid to Families with Dependent Children Subtitle A: Requirements for Teenage Parents Subtitle B: State Flexibility Title III: Child Support Enforcement Subtitle A: Improvements to the Child Support Collection System Subtitle B: Effect of Enactment Title IV: Supplemental Security Income Title V: Miscellaneous Provisions Family Support Act of 1995 - Title I: Strengthening the JOBS Program - Amends part A (Aid to Families With Dependent Children) (AFDC) of title IV of the Social Security Act (SSA) to increase from 20 percent in 1995 to 50 percent in 2001 the required State rate for participation in the Job Opportunities and Basic Skills Training (JOBS) Program. (Sec. 102) Requires a State agency to establish procedures to: (1) encourage the placement of participants in jobs as quickly as possible, including using performance measures that reward staff performance; and (2) assist participants in retaining employment after they are hired. Authorizes a State agency to establish a job placement voucher program meeting specified requirements. Requires a State to: (1) make a list of approved job placement organizations available to an eligible AFDC applicant or recipient; and (2) give the participant a voucher to present to the job placement organization, which may redeem it after successfully placing the participant in employment for a six- month period (or longer, as the State determines). Repeals the requirement for States to provide educational activities to individuals age 20 or older. Allows States to: (1) establish their own requirements for when and how long an AFDC recipient or applicant must participate in job search; and (2) provide JOBS services to non-custodial parents who are unemployed and unable to meet their child support obligations. (Sec. 103) Increases funding for the JOBS program. Revises the formula for the Federal matching rate, for both the JOBS program and for child care, to make it, for FY 1997 and thereafter, 70 percent or the State's Federal Medicaid matching rate plus ten percentage points, whichever is higher. (Sec. 104) Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to develop a plan for evaluating the JOBS program. Authorizes appropriations. Title II: Aid to Families with Dependent Children - Subtitle A: Requirements for Teenage Parents - Amends part A (AFDC) of SSA title IV to require State agencies to assign to each custodial parent under age 20 a case manager responsible for assisting the teen parent in obtaining services and monitoring their compliance with all program requirements. (Sec. 202) Requires State agencies to require participating (as well as certain program-exempt) custodial parents under age 20 who have not completed high school (or its equivalent) to: (1) attend school; (2) participate in a program combining classroom and job training; or (3) work toward attainment of a high school education (or its equivalent). Requires State agencies to require such parents who have successfully completed high school (or its equivalent) to participate in a State-approved JOBS activity. Grants States the option to conduct a program of monetary incentives and penalties to encourage custodial parents (and pregnant women) under age 20 to complete their high school (or equivalent) education, and participate in parenting activities. (Sec. 203) Requires States to require, with specified exceptions, an individual under age 18 who has a dependent child (or is pregnant) to live with a parent, legal guardian, or other adult relative, or reside in a foster home, maternity home, or other adult-supervised supportive living arrangement, with AFDC payments made to the individual's parent or other adult on the individual's behalf. Subtitle B: State Flexibility - Establishes an Interagency Welfare Review Board as the central organization for coordinating the review of State applications for waivers that involve more than one Federal department or agency. Requires the Board to provide assistance and technical advice to States applying for such waivers. (Sec. 221) Requires the Secretary to approve or disapprove a waiver application within 90 days after its receipt. Grants a presumption for approval for any waiver request similar in substance and scale to one previously approved. (Sec. 222) Authorizes any State, without receiving a waiver, to establish program changes in: (1) income and resource requirements; (2) requirements relating to disregard of income; (3) standards for defining unemployment other than those defined by the Secretary; and (4) rules that prescribe the number of quarters of work that a principal earner must have to qualify for unemployment compensation. (Sec. 223) Authorizes States to apply for waivers of JOBS program rules in order to conduct JOBS demonstration projects. Title III: Child Support Enforcement - Interstate Child Support Responsibility Act of 1995 - Subtitle A: Improvements to the Child Support Collection System - Amends part D (Child Support and Establishment of Paternity) of SSA title IV to state that mothers shall not be considered to cooperate with paternity establishment efforts unless they furnish the State agency with the name of the putative father (or fathers) and specified additional information. Requires the State child support enforcement agency to make a cooperation determination within ten days after the mother's referral. Prohibits denial of AFDC and Medicaid benefits for lack of cooperation until the formal determination is made. (Retains the current good cause exception to the cooperation requirement.) (Sec. 302) Requires States to record every child support order established or modified in the State on or after October 1, 1998, in the central case registry established under this Act. (Sec. 303) Revises requirements for the distribution of collected child support to former as well as to current AFDC recipients before reimbursement of State and Federal government agencies. Specifies alternative distribution priorities at State option. (Sec. 304) Provides for notification of service applicants and recipients of all support obligation proceedings, as well as specified privacy safeguards. (Sec. 311) Increases from 66 percent to 75 percent, as of FY 1999, the Federal matching rate for State and local child support and paternity establishment costs. Revises performance-based incentive adjustments to the matching rate, as well as payment reduction penalties for failure to meet specified paternity establishment and child support enforcement goals. (Sec. 313) Revises requirements for State and Federal reviews and audits of part D programs. (Sec. 315) Requires States to have in operation a single statewide automated data processing and information retrieval system capable of performing required part D tasks. Establishes a special Federal matching rate for development costs of such systems. (Sec. 316) Directs the Secretary periodically to study, directly or by contract, the staffing of each State child support enforcement program. (Sec. 317) Sets forth a formula for certain funds made available to the Secretary for specified assistance to State programs. (Sec. 321) Requires any State automated system for locate and case tracking to perform the functions of a single central registry containing records with standardized data elements. (Sec. 322) Requires State agencies to operate a single, centralized, automated unit for the collection and disbursement of child support payments. (Sec. 323) Requires States to have procedures under which all child support orders issued or modified before October 1, 1996, which are not otherwise subject to income withholding, shall become subject to withholding from wages without the need for a judicial or administrative hearing. (Sec. 324) Requires States to have procedures ensuring that they will neither provide funding for nor use for any purpose any automated interstate network or system to locate individuals for law enforcement or motor vehicle purposes unless all Federal and State agencies administering child support enforcement programs have access to information in the network or system to the same extent as any other user. (Sec. 325) Provides for expanded authority to locate individuals and assets through the Federal Parent Locator Service (FPLS). Directs the Secretary to establish within the FPLS: (1) a Data Bank of Child Support Orders, containing abstracts of support orders and other information on each case in each State central case registry; and (2) a Directory of New Hires, with information supplied by employers and by State agencies administering State unemployment compensation laws. Sets forth requirements for such Data Bank and Directory, including penalties for noncomplying employers. (Sec. 326) Requires States to have procedures requiring the recording of social security numbers: (1) of both parties on marriage licenses, birth records, and child support and paternity orders; and (2) on all applications for motor vehicle licenses and professional licenses. (Sec. 331) Requires States to adopt in its entirety by January 1, 1997, the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act, as approved by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws in August 1992. (Sec. 332) Revises requirements with respect to the full faith and credit given State child support orders by sister States. (Sec. 333) Requires States to have procedures giving the State agency authority, without the necessity of obtaining an order from any other judicial or administrative tribunal, to take specified actions to establish or enforce paternity establishment or child support orders. (Sec. 341) Revises requirements for paternity establishment procedures, especially voluntary establishment. Grants anyone who has acknowledged paternity 60 days to rescind such acknowledgement. Allows a court challenge of a signed acknowledgement of paternity after 60 days only on the basis of fraud, duress, or material mistake of fact. Permits a minor who has signed such an acknowledgement outside the presence of a parent or court-appointed guardian ad litem to rescind it beyond the 60-day limit, but no later than the earlier of: (1) the age of majority; or (2) the date of the first judicial or administrative proceeding brought to establish a support obligation, visitation rights, or custody rights of the child in question at which the minor putative father is represented by a parent, guardian ad litem, or attorney. Requires State procedures under which: (1) no judicial or administrative proceedings are required or permitted to ratify an unchallenged acknowledgement of paternity; (2) parties to a paternity action are not entitled to a jury trial; and (3) a temporary child support order shall be issued, upon a party's motion, pending an administrative or judicial determination of parentage, where there is clear and convincing evidence of paternity (on the basis of genetic tests or other evidence). (Sec. 342) Requires States to publicize the availability and encourage the use of procedures for voluntary paternity establishment and child support through a variety of means, including: (1) distribution of written materials at health care facilities and other locations such as schools; (2) pre-natal programs to educate expectant couples on individual and joint rights and responsibilities with respect to paternity; and (3) reasonable follow-up efforts after a new-born child has been discharged from a hospital if paternity or child support have not been established. Sets a Federal matching payment to each State of 90 percent of the costs of outreach programs designed to encourage voluntary acknowledgement of paternity. (Sec. 351) Establishes the National Child Support Guidelines Commission, which shall determine whether it is appropriate to develop a national child support guideline and, if so, develop one. (Sec. 352) Requires States to: (1) review both AFDC and non-AFDC child support orders every three years at the request of either parent; and (2) adjust an order (without a requirement for any other change in circumstances) if the amount of child support under the order differs from the amount that would be awarded based on State guidelines. Mandates such a review and adjustment, at either parent's request, at any time there is a substantial change in the circumstances of either such parent. Requires child support orders to require parents to provide each other with annual statements of financial condition. (Sec. 361) Amends the Internal Revenue Code to revise the priorities for child support offset of tax refunds to give first priority to satisfaction of any past-due support which has not been assigned to the State, and only secondarily to satisfaction of past-due support that has been so assigned. Provides that up to $10,000 of any lump-sum child support payment withheld from a tax refund for a family receiving AFDC may be placed in a Qualified Asset Account. Limits the use of funds in such an account to: (1) education and training programs; (2) improvements in an individual's employability (including purchase of an automobile); (3) the purchase of a home; or (4) a change of family residence. Excludes such funds from any accounting for purposes of AFDC benefit eligibility. (Sec. 362) Prohibits the assessment of any additional fee for adjustments to a child support arrearage previously certified to the Secretary of the Treasury for collection through the Internal Revenue Service. (Sec. 363) Revises child support enforcement requirements with respect to Federal employees and members of the armed forces to subject them to the same withholding procedures that apply to non-Federal employees. (Sec. 364) Requires the Secretary of Defense to establish a centralized personnel locator service including the address of each member of the armed forces under the Secretary's jurisdiction (as well as the addresses of members of the Coast Guard, upon request of the Secretary of Transportation). Revises treatment of military personnel with respect to child support enforcement interaction with the States. (Sec. 365) Requires States to have in effect the Uniform Fraudulent Conveyance Act of 1981, the Uniform Fraudulent Conveyance Act of 1984, or another law, specifying indicia of fraud which create a prima facie case that a debtor transferred income or property to avoid payment to a child support creditor, which the Secretary finds affords comparable rights to such creditors. Requires a State to: (1) void any transfer by a child support debtor with respect to which such a prima facie case is established; or (2) obtain a settlement in the best interests of the child support creditor. (Sec. 366) Requires States to have procedures for withholding, suspending, or restricting the use of driver's licenses, professional and occupational licenses, and recreational licenses of individuals owing overdue child support or failing, after receiving appropriate notice, to comply with subpoenas or warrants relating to paternity or child support proceedings. (Sec. 367) Requires States to have procedures (subject to specified safeguards) for periodically reporting to consumer reporting agencies the name of any absent parent who is delinquent in the payment of child support, plus the amount overdue. (Sec. 368) Requires States to have procedures under which the statute of limitations on any arrearages of child support extends at least until the child owed such support reached age 30. (Sec. 369) Requires States to have procedures for charging and collecting interest and penalties on child support arrearages. (Sec. 370) Requires the Secretary to transmit to the Secretary of State for denial, revocation, or limitation of passports any State agency certification that an individual owes arrearages of child support exceeding $5,000 or in an amount exceeding 24 months' worth of child support. Requires the Secretary of State, upon receipt of such a certification, to refuse to issue a passport to such an individual; and permits the Secretary to revoke, restrict, or limit a previously issued passport. (Sec. 381) Amends the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 to revise the definition of medical child support order to include such orders issued by an administrative adjudicator and having the force and effect of law under applicable State law. (Sec. 391) Authorizes appropriations for grants to States for programs to support and facilitate absent parents' access and visitation to their children. Subtitle B: Effect of Enactment - Sets forth the effective dates of this title, with provision for specified grace periods for State law changes and State constitutional amendments. Title IV: Supplemental Security Income - Directs the Commissioner of Social Security to issue regulations for determining the disability in individuals under age 18 (disabled children), for supplemental security income (SSI) benefit eligibility purposes, in order to ensure that such eligibility is limited to those individuals whose impairments are so severe as to cause at least: (1) a marked limitation in at least two domains of functioning or development; or (2) an extreme limitation in at least one such domain. (Sec. 401) Defines "domain" as a broad but, to the maximum extent practicable, discrete area of function or development that can be identified in infancy and traced through an individual's maturation. States that under no circumstance may the Commissioner specify a domain of maladaptive behavior or consider the limitations caused by such behavior in more than one domain. Requires the Commissioner, within two years after promulgating such regulations, to redetermine the SSI eligibility of each individual receiving such benefits on the basis of disability found before the effective date of such regulations. (Sec. 402) Amends SSA title XVI (SSI) to direct the Commissioner to establish a directory of services for disabled children that are available within the area served by each Social Security Administration office. (Sec. 403) Requires the Commissioner to use standardized tests measuring childhood development or functioning, or equivalent criteria, when determining whether an individual under age 18 is disabled. (Sec. 404) Sets forth a graduated schedule of benefits for several blind or disabled children living in the same (non-group or non-foster home) household. Preserves Medicaid eligibility for all such children. (Sec. 405) Requires the representative payee of a disabled child to file a treatment plan for the child, developed by the child's physician or other medical provider, within three months after the child's SSI eligibility determination. Authorizes the Commissioner to appoint an alternative representative payee, giving preference to the State agency administering the SSI plan, if the original representative payee fails to file a treatment plan. Requires State agencies administering the SSI plan to furnish the Commissioner, upon request, with any information necessary to verify information provided by a representative payee. Requires the Commissioner to reimburse a State agency for the costs of providing such information. Requires the SSA Inspector General to report to specified congressional committees on the implementation of the treatment plan requirements. (Sec. 406) Requires each representative payee of a disabled child to: (1) establish an account in a financial institution on behalf of the child; and (2) deposit into it the initial retroactive payment if the amount of such payment equals or exceeds six times the maximum Federal benefit rate. Allows the deposit of smaller retroactive payments. Limits the use of account funds to education or job skills training or other specified expenses for the disabled child. Requires the Commissioner to establish a system of monitoring payee use of such funds. (Sec. 407) Requires the Commissioner to conduct specified periodic continuing disability reviews for disabled children receiving SSI payments. (Sec. 408) Makes the State agency administering the Maternal and Child Health block grant responsible for developing a care coordination plan for each disabled child. Directs the Secretary, the Commissioner, and the Secretary of Education to take necessary steps to assure that specified State agencies: (1) assist in developing such plan; (2) participate in the planning and delivery of services required by the plan; and (3) provide the Secretary for each fiscal year with information on the services provided. Title V: Miscellaneous Provisions - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to revise the tax responsibilities of expatriation. (Sec. 501) Treats all property held immediately before expatriation by a U.S. citizen relinquishing citizenship as sold at such time for its fair market value. (Excludes from such property: (1) any U.S. real property interest other than stock of a U.S. real property holding corporation; and (2) any interest (not exceeding $500,000) in a qualified retirement plan, foreign or domestic.) Subjects to income taxation any accrued asset gains (in excess of $600,000) as of such date. Waives such treatment for any individual electing to continue to be taxed as a U.S. citizen. Applies such tax treatment also to certain long-term non-citizen U.S. residents upon losing such resident status. (Sec. 502) Declares that, if a non-resident alien individual becomes a U.S. resident or citizen, gain or loss on the disposition of any property held on the date the individual becomes a resident or citizen shall be determined by substituting, as of the applicable date, the fair market value of such property for its cost basis. (States that any deduction for depreciation, depletion, or amortization shall be determined without regard to application of this section.) (Sec. 503) Denies the earned income tax credit to: (1) individuals not authorized to be employed in the United States; and (2) individuals with substantial capital gain net income. Limits such credit to individuals (including spouses and qualifying children) with social security numbers as tax identification numbers. Treats taxpayer errors in social security numbers as mathematical or clerical errors (which can be dealt with under certain simplified procedures instead of normal tax deficiency procedures). (Sec. 505) Revises the treatment of certain stock redemptions as distributions in part or full payment in exchange for the stock. Repeals the current corporate shareholder option to reduce the basis in the remaining stock by the untaxed (deducted) portion of an extraordinary dividend. Treats any non pro rata redemption (or partial liquidation), with specified exceptions, as a sale of the redeemed stock, even if such distribution would otherwise be treated as a dividend entitled to a dividends received deduction. (Sec. 506) Applies uniform alien eligibility criteria to AFDC, SSI, and Medicaid benefits. (Sec. 507) Repeals the termination date of the five-year deeming requirement under which newly legalized resident aliens are deemed for five years to have the income and assets of their sponsors (thus disqualifying them for SSI benefits for such period of time). Extends the deeming period for AFDC eligibility from three to five years. Amends the Food Stamp Act of 1977 to extend the deeming period from three to five years for food stamp benefit eligibility. Exempts from the deeming period (and temporary disqualification for benefits) any alien whose sponsor receives SSI, AFDC, or food stamp benefits. Authorizes the Secretary (and, for food stamps, the Secretary of Agriculture) to alter or suspend application of deeming and disqualification requirements where their application would be inequitable under the circumstances. Authorizes a State or local government to make an alien ineligible for any need-based assistance program it furnishes for any month during which such alien is ineligible for AFDC, SSI, or food stamp benefits.

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• Introduced in Senate (text)

  Introduced in Senate · EN · 18 May 1995

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• Introduced in Senate (PDF)

  Introduced in Senate · EN · 18 May 1995

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• Introduced in Senate

  summary · EN · 18 May 1995

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