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Lawmakers hear testimony on bill to add oversight and contractor checks to Montana child support guidelines
Summary
A House committee heard competing testimony on HB352, which would create a citizen oversight committee for Child Support Services Division (CSSD), require outside verification of the state’s child-support calculator, and specify reporting and procurement steps; DPHHS called the bill duplicative and raised procurement concerns.
Representative Schomer on Wednesday brought House Bill 352 to the House Health and Human Services Committee, saying the measure would revise Montana’s Child Support Guidelines, establish a guidelines review oversight committee, set reporting requirements, and require the Department of Public Health and Human Services to contract with a private software vendor to verify the state calculator.
An expert witness, Temple McLean, testified for the sponsor and urged the panel to consider long-standing checks and balances. "Setting forth regulation into statute offers Montana residents the best assurance that fairness is retained," McLean said, describing MTCS (formerly a vendor developed by Nick Bordeaux) as a decades-long private check that historically produced calculations within…
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