International Child Support Treaty Approved By House

 Posted on July 23, 2012 in Child Support

Today our society is more global than ever before. It is not uncommon for children to live in a different country than their parents due to a divorce or other circumstances. Earlier this month, the U.S. House passed legislation which would make it easier for state child support enforcement programs to collect payments from parents living outside of the country.

The measure given approval in the House is a move towards ratifying a 2007 international child support treaty. The purpose of the treaty is to facilitate cooperation and information sharing between countries for the purpose of securing financial support payments.

The measure's sponsor, Rep. Rick Berg (R- ND) explained the goal of the legislation, "This bill is about empowering states, which operate the child support enforcement program, to do more to help families, and most importantly, children."

Although the 2007 Hague Convention on the International Recovery of Child Support and Other Forms of Family Maintenance was signed by the European Union, the United States and other countries, only Norway has since ratified it. If approved by the U.S. Senate, this measure would provide the language required for implementing it.

Bilateral child support agreements already exist between the U.S. and 15 other countries. The former president of the National Child Support Enforcement Association explained in a March committee meeting that while the U.S. has frequently been enforcing child support obligations for other countries, requests by the U.S. to foreign countries for assistance are less likely to be processed.