Child Support Enforcement and the Hague Convention on Recovery of International Child Support.

This report provides an overview of the current Child Support Enforcement (CSE) system, including a discussion of how international CSE cases are handled. It provides a summary of the 2007 Hague Convention on the International Recovery of Child Support and Other Forms of Family Maintenance (the Convention) and contains current status information. It also provides a description of the provisions included in Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act (P.L. 113-183) that pertain to enforcement of child support in international cases. These provisions would implement the Hague Convention on International Recovery of Child Support and any other multilateral agreement to which the United States is a party. Provisions in the law include: requiring the Secretary of HHS to use the authorities provided by law to ensure the compliance of the United States with any multilateral child support convention to which the United States is a party; giving other countries participating in the Convention access to the Federal Parent Locator Service (FPLS); giving States the option to require individuals in foreign countries to apply for CSE services through their country’s appropriate central authority for child support enforcement; amending federal law so that the federal income tax refund offset program is available for use by a state to handle CSE requests from foreign reciprocating countries and foreign treaty countries; and requiring States to have in effect the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act and treat past-due child support obligations as final judgements tare are entitle to full faith and credit in every State.