The Child Support Enforcement Program: Summary of Laws Enacted Since 1950

The Child Support Enforcement (CSE) program was enacted in 1975 as a federal-state program (established in Title IV-D of the Social Security Act [SSA] by P.L. 93-647). This followed several precursor laws creating federal child support requirements that had been enacted in the 1950s and 1960s. At its inception, the primary purpose of the CSE program was to reduce public expenditures on cash assistance (then Aid to Families with Dependent Children [AFDC], currently the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families [TANF] block grant) by obtaining ongoing support from noncustodial parents that could be used to reimburse the state and federal governments for part of that assistance. Cash assistance recipients were required to cooperate with CSE activities and assign (i.e., legally turn over) collections made on their behalf to the state. These collections were then split between the federal and state governments as reimbursement for cash assistance payments. This purpose is often referred to as cash assistance cost-recovery. Relatedly, the program also sought to ensure financial support for children from their noncustodial parents on a consistent and continuing basis to enable some of those families to remain off public assistance. Since its enactment in 1975, more than 50 laws have made changes to the CSE program. The amendments in the 1980s (in particular, the Child Support Amendments of 1984 and the Family Support Act of 1988) broadened the mission beyond cash assistance cost-recovery to include service delivery for both families that receive cash assistance and those that do not receive cash assistance (i.e., assistance families and nonassistance families). Income support for assistance families also became an increasing focus of the program, which led to changes to child support distribution and sanctions for noncooperation. In addition, this period saw improvements in the technological capabilities of the program to locate parents and collect support. These improvements expanded the reach of the program and were commonly regarded as having increased its efficacy. The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA; P.L. 104-193) made numerous changes to establishment and enforcement authorities that were aimed at strengthening the ability of the program to collect support. It also enacted the “family first” policy, which required that former assistance families receive certain child support arrearage payments collected by the state before the state and federal governments retain their share of collections. In the decades since, additional changes to Title IV-D have included expansions to enforcement methods, changes to program funding, and further alterations to the rules that govern how support is distributed to families. It is widely asserted that since the late 1990s the CSE program has been considered effective in improving the financial well-being of custodial families by making child support a more reliable source of income. This report summarizes the laws that have made changes to the CSE program. It begins by providing an overview of the program and current law requirements. It then discusses the events leading to the enactment of the CSE program in 1975 and the context for major legislation enacted since that time. The bulk of the report is devoted to describing the precursor laws to the CSE program, the provisions that were part of the initial law, and the many subsequent provisions that amended the program. (For a list of these laws, see Table 2). The information on individual CSE provisions generally focuses on how the main provisions of the CSE program changed over time, and it does not provide an exhaustive summary of all provisions in each law. (Most CSE provisions were enacted with changes to other human services and SSA programs, frequently as provisions in omnibus budget reconciliation bills). In addition, this report generally focuses only on changes made to Title IV-D of the SSA, which authorizes the CSE program. With a few exceptions, child support-related provisions outside Title IV-D are beyond the scope of this report.