Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Child Support topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Attorney General and advocates push bill to pass through child support to families; plan includes enforceability reform and phased tech upgrades
Summary
The Child Support Improvement Amendment Act would rout child‑support payments collected for families on TANF directly to custodial parents and create a single enforceability cutoff (youngest child + five years), with phased implementation tied to a systems modernization that the AG says will require federal matching and local funding.
The Committee heard widespread support for the Child Support Improvement Amendment Act of 2026, introduced by Attorney General Brian Schwab and Councilmembers Pinto and Fruman, aimed at ensuring child support collected for families who currently or formerly received Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) goes to those families rather than being retained by the District.
Nut graf: Attorney General Schwab framed the legislation as an anti‑poverty, family‑first reform that would change how the District distributes child support collections — including pass‑through of current payments and arrears to TANF families — and would replace a complex month‑by‑month statute of limitations with a single enforceability cutoff tied to the youngest child’s age.
Legal advocates and anti‑poverty groups testified in favor. Bridal Boulibou of Legal Aid DC described the current structure that retains most child support for government cost recovery and urged an immediate full pass‑through to families currently receiving TANF to increase household resources. Experts from the Gender Justice Clinic and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities highlighted racial and gender inequities in the existing system and said passing more money through to families improves child outcomes and parent engagement.
The bill also proposes a uniform enforceability rule to replace the current practice (where each missed monthly payment is a separate judgment with its own 12‑year statute). Under the proposed reform, unpaid child support would be enforceable until five years after the youngest child on the order turns 21, creating a single final date for collection rather than numerous rolling deadlines. Legal Aid and pro bono counsel recommended additional measures the committee could consider: automatic suspension of support during incarceration, expanded 'good cause' exemptions for domestic violence survivors, and exemptions from driver‑license suspension for low‑income parents.
Nut graf 2: Implementation depends on technology upgrades. The Attorney General’s office said the District has submitted a feasibility study for a larger modernization project; the AG’s office estimates roughly $32 million for full modernization (with a roughly 66% federal match), while near‑term coding work to support initial pass‑through phases may cost an estimated $300,000 capital and modest recurring operating amounts. AG Schwab asked the committee to phase in the changes and to budget for the early operational impacts.
Quotes and details: Melissa McClure of Legal Aid DC urged the Council to ensure the statute of limitations reform operates automatically rather than requiring unrepresented parents to raise an affirmative defense: “A statute of limitations operating as a matter of law also saves judicial resources by cutting unnecessary court hearings on expired debts,” she said. The Office of the Attorney General said roughly 30,000 of the district’s roughly 40,000 child‑support cases involve families who currently or at some point received TANF; about 10,510 of those are active support cases with state arrears where pass‑through would deliver immediate benefit.
Ending: The committee signaled bipartisan interest in the reforms; members pressed the AG on budget timing and phasing and asked OAG and court partners to return with cost‑estimates and implementation timelines. No vote occurred at the hearing.
