First Regular Session

Sixty-first General Assembly

LLS NO. R97@0744.01 JGG

STATE OF COLORADO

BY SENATORS Feeley and Matsunaka.

HEALTH, ENVIRONMENT, WELFARE

AND INSTITUTIONS

SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION 97-13

URGING THE U.S. CONGRESS TO RECONSIDER THE REQUIREMENT OF A STATE DIRECTORY OF NEW HIRES FOR PURPOSES OF CHILD SUPPORT ENFORCEMENT.

WHEREAS, The federal "Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996", Public Law 104­193, herein referred to as the "Act", was passed by the United States House of Representatives on July 18, 1996, and the United States Senate on July 23, 1996, the conference report associated therewith was approved by the United States House and Senate on July 31, 1996, and August 1, 1996, respectively, and the Act was signed into law by President Clinton on August 22, 1996; and

WHEREAS, Title III of the Act addresses the several states' obligation to provide child support enforcement services, including the requirement that the states adopt certain procedures for the location of noncustodial parents and the establishment, modification, and enforcement of child support obligations against such parents; and

WHEREAS, The members of the Sixty­first General Assembly recognize the crucial importance to children of receiving financial support from both their custodial and noncustodial parents; and

WHEREAS, Tens of thousands of children of divorced or unwed parents in Colorado have not received the financial support from their noncustodial parents to which they are entitled; and

WHEREAS, The members of the Sixty­first General Assembly, in an effort to ensure that these minor and dependent children receive such financial support, have historically enacted numerous statutory measures to improve the collection of child support in Colorado; and

WHEREAS, The members of the Sixty­first General Assembly must ensure that child support collection efforts and statutory measures are effective; and

WHEREAS, The Act requires the states to enact several new procedures that may further enhance the states' ability to establish and enforce child support orders; however, the members of the Sixty­first General Assembly find that among the many new remedies specified in the Act is a requirement that each state establish a state directory of new hires to which all employers in the state must report each newly hired employee, whether or not the employee has a child support obligation, within a restricted period of time after the employer hires the employee; and

WHEREAS, These procedures place an undue burden on small businesses and businesses that experience rapid and frequent turnover in personnel; and

WHEREAS, It should not be the goal or result of increased child support collection efforts to penalize businesses or burden them with costly, labor­intensive mandates; and

WHEREAS, The Act, although facilitating the implementation of nationwide child support enforcement measures, also imposes upon the states such insufficiently funded mandates as the state directory of new hires requirement; now, therefore,

Be It Resolved by the Senate of the Sixty­first General Assembly of the State of Colorado, the House of Representatives concurring herein:

That we, the members of the Sixty­first General Assembly, urge the Congress of the United States to reexamine or repeal the specific provision of the federal "Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996" that mandates the several states to implement a state directory of new hires.

Be It Further Resolved, That copies of this Resolution be sent to the President of the United States, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President of the Senate of each

state legislature, and each member of Colorado's Congressional delegation.