Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Child Support Reporting topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Committee advances bill to require arrearage amounts be reported in federal child support notices
Summary
The Children and Family Law Committee voted 3-0 to recommend passage of House Bill 204, which would direct the state child support division to report dollar amounts of arrearages and to avoid reporting accounts that do not meet the federal $2,500 threshold.
The Children and Family Law Committee advanced House Bill 204 on a 3-0 vote after hearing sponsor testimony and clarification from the Bureau of Child Support Services.
Representative James Spillane, the bill's prime sponsor, told the committee the bill would prevent people from being mistakenly reported to the federal government as delinquent on child support. "I was denied a passport that I needed to be able to travel for work, because I was told I was delinquent," Spillane said, describing how pay-period timing and the bureau's weekly reporting schedule produced short-term mismatches that made him appear in arrears.
The bill would require the state to maintain an automated child-support reporting system that "complies with the federal guidelines on child support delinquency and shall not report as delinquent any arrearage that does not meet the applicable federal threshold." It would also require the system to report the dollar amount of the arrearage to the requesting federal agency when an account is delinquent.
The bill's language mirrors an amendment previously adopted in the state senate last term, Spillane said, and is aimed at preventing short-term misalignments in payment timing from triggering federal enforcement actions such as passport denials. "By having that dollar amount, it will show true whether it's a true delinquency situation or whether it is just an error in the rounding math," he said.
Matthew Hayes, a staff attorney and legislative liaison with the Bureau of Child Support Services, said the bureau was neutral on the bill and that the bureau already operates a certified automated system that reports case balances to the federal system. "It's my understanding ... they are told as part of a batching process what the balances are," Hayes said, and he did not identify a systemic malfunction with the bureau's system.
Committee members asked whether the federal reporting threshold includes interest or penalties; Hayes said New Hampshire applies only the straight child-support accruals and does not add interest. Senator Long pressed on operational details and confirmation that the federal threshold is $2,500, and Hayes and other witnesses described monthly reconciliations and batching processes between the state system and the federal child-support bureau within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Action: At the committee's executive session, Senator Abbas moved an "ought to pass" recommendation for HB 204; the committee adopted the motion and voted 3-0 to advance the bill.
The bill's sponsors said the change is narrowly focused on improving reporting accuracy and will reduce the number of people who are temporarily flagged as delinquent when their payroll timing causes short-term imbalances. Supporters asked the committee to advance the bill so the state can adopt the reporting language that had been negotiated with the senate last term.
The committee recorded no public opposition during the hearing. The Bureau of Child Support Services said it worked on similar language last year and testified as neutral, offering to assist with technical questions.
A next step will be consideration by the full Senate chamber if the bill remains on its current course.
