Pub. L. 113-183 Section 305: Report to Congress Outreach

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DCL-14-17

Publication Date: October 23, 2014
Current as of:

DEAR COLLEAGUE LETTER

DCL-14-17

DATE: October 23, 2014

TO:  State Child Support Directors and All Interested Individuals

RE:  H.R. 4980 (Pub. L. 113-183) Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act of 2014, Section 305(2) - Report to Congress Outreach

Dear Colleague:

As you may already know, the Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act (Act) was passed by Congress and signed by the President on September 29, 2014.  The Act requires that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) submit a Report to Congress (Report) by June 30, 2015 in consultation with stakeholders including state, tribal, and county child support directors, judges who preside over family courts and organizations that represent them, custodial and noncustodial parents and organizations that represent parents, and fiduciaries such as financial institutions and employers.  The Act also requires that we solicit public comment.

The Report will address cost-effective improvements to the child support enforcement program funded under title IV-D of the Social Security Act, including:

  • effectiveness and performance of the program;
  • analysis of program practices;
  • identification of possible new collection tools and approaches; and
  • identification of strategies for holding parents accountable for supporting their children and for building the capacity of parents to pay child support, with specific attention given to front-end services, ongoing case management, collections, tribal-state partnerships, interstate, and intergovernmental interactions, program performance, data analytics, and information technology.

The Report also will specifically address the topics listed in the Supplementary Information-Background section of the Federal Register notice, which is referenced below.

This letter notifies you of an opportunity to provide comments.  A public notice soliciting comment was published in the Federal Register October 23, 2014 (79 FR 63406  (PDF)). Comments are due by December 22, 2014.  We value your input on any aspect of the Report.

Sincerely,

Vicki Turetsky
Commissioner
Office of Child Support Enforcement

cc:  ACF-OCSE Regional Program Managers