International Child Support Recovery Improvement Act of 2013

Floor Speech

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Mr. DOGGETT. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I am pleased to join the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Reichert) in support of the International Child Support Recovery Improvement Act.

We tried to do this just about a year ago. In the last Congress, I coauthored very similar legislation that was bipartisan here on the floor. Though we acted here, the Senate was slow to act, and we are hopeful that now, with the leadership of Chairman Reichert and, again, with broad bipartisan support, we can get this measure passed not only here in the House but see prompt action in the Senate.

International borders should never be barriers to children receiving the financial support that their parents are obligated to provide nor should a parent be able to shirk his responsibility to his child by just leaving America, but the complexity and difficulty in enforcing child support obligations when a child and the noncustodial parent live in one country and when the other parent lives in another sometimes lets a parent off the hook.

The bill before us today would reduce many of the challenges in collecting child support across international borders by fully implementing The Hague Convention on the International Recovery of Child Support. The Senate adopted that Hague Convention as a treaty in 2010, and this legislation will bring us into full compliance and will encourage the State child support agencies to have uniform methods for processing international child support orders.

Here in the United States, many of our State child support agencies already recognize and enforce foreign child support obligations. Whether or not the United States has a reciprocal agreement, this just ensures that all 50 States do. Many foreign nations are not enforcing a U.S. child support order in the absence of a treaty or other agreement. While our Nation does have reciprocal child support agreements with some countries, it does not have arrangements with many of those around the globe, hence the need for this single treaty that establishes a uniform, efficient, and accessible procedure for processing international child support cases.

Some desperate families are today asking for help through the Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement, and that office is not able to provide the help. We have an estimated 160,000 international child support cases that currently involve children or parents here in the United States, and with the very nature of our global economy--with more goods and services and people moving across national boundaries--this number is likely to only grow.

As with other effective child support measures, it's taxpayers who benefit by not being saddled with the costs of supporting children when a parent should be doing that. The Congressional Budget Office concludes that this bill would result in some modest debt savings to the child support program.

In addition to improving the international collection of child support, the legislation includes a provision that is new, under Mr. Reichert's leadership, concerning data standardization within the child support enforcement system. We've worked diligently to incorporate the same requirement into other human resources programs to improve the ability to share data--a step that will make them more efficient, less susceptible to fraud, and better able to reach those who really need assistance.

Finally, this measure would also allow certain researchers access to wage information in a child support database, known as the National Directory of New Hires, in order to determine the effectiveness of employment-related programs.

Mr. Speaker, this bill is truly bipartisan, and it doesn't cost taxpayers money. In fact, it will save taxpayers money. Most importantly, it will help more children get the financial help that they deserve. The House passed nearly identical legislation last year at about this time. After we pass the bill today, I urge my Senate colleagues to act promptly to ensure that leaving the country doesn't mean leaving your child support obligation behind.

I thank the gentleman from Washington for his leadership, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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