Share:
House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2015 - 2016
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | September 24, 2015 12:46 PM |
|---|---|
| From: | Representative Katharine M. Watson |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | Uniform Interstate Family Support Act (UIFSA) |
| Colleagues, I soon will be introducing legislation to bring Pennsylvania into compliance with changes that have been made to the federal Uniform Interstate Family Support Act (UIFSA). The amendments contained in this legislation were originally adopted by the Uniform Law Commission in 2008 to incorporate changes necessitated by the Hague Convention on the International Recovery of Child Support and Other Forms of Family Maintenance. The United States signed that Convention’s child support treaty in 2007. These amendments provide guidelines and procedures for the registration, recognition, enforcement and modification of foreign support orders from countries that are parties to the Convention. In order to be in compliance with federal law, it is imperative that Pennsylvania enact these amendments before Dec. 31, 2015. Failure to enact these amendments by this date may result in the loss of approximately $150 million of federal funding for Pennsylvania’s child support enforcement and other programs. The UIFSA is codified in Part VIII (chapters 71 through 79) of Title 23 of the Pa. C.S. and provides uniform rules for the enforcement of family support orders in proceedings where the parties may have connections in more than one state. Additionally, in order to fully comply with the current UIFSA, this legislation also includes amendments which Pennsylvania has yet to adopt that were adopted and promulgated by the Uniform Law Commission in 2001. I respectfully ask for your support and co-sponsorship of this important piece of legislation. |
Introduced as HB1603