Wyden Introduces Bill to Improve Child Support Enforcement on Tribal Lands

Press Release

U.S. Senator Ron Wyden today reintroduced legislation to improve child support enforcement by allowing the 60 Native American tribes that currently operate their own child support agencies to access a federal tax refund program that will help them collect past-due child support from non-custodial parents.

"Tribes in Oregon and across the nation deserve access to the same tools as state child support agencies, especially when it comes to making sure families and children get the support they need to thrive during the COVID-19 and pandemic beyond," said Wyden, Chair of the Senate Finance Committee. "This bill is a common-sense step to help tribal child support agencies recover past-due child support payments for children who might otherwise go without."

States can use several enforcement methods to enforce child support payments, including the Federal Tax Refund Offset Program. With this program, if a non-custodial parent is set to receive a tax refund and owes past-due child support, the U.S. Department of the Treasury can withhold the refund and send it to the state child support agency for disbursement to the family. Extending this program to the 60 tribes that operate their own child support agencies would create parity between tribes and states by allowing tribal child support agencies to obtain other identifiable information of non-custodial parents that can be used to enforce child support.

The Tribal Child Support Enforcement Act is co-sponsored by Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee's Subcommittee on Taxation and IRS Oversight.

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