Texas Senate passes bill to help child support families
AUSTIN (KXAN) — Legislation that would modernize administrative processes in child support cases passed the Texas Senate this week.
Senate Bill 1403 would allow the Texas Office of the Attorney General to expedite procedures and provide 'clarity that reduces unnecessary delays in delivering child support services to Texas families,' according to the bill analysis.
The legislation comes after a KXAN investigation highlighted that Texas parents are owed billions of dollars in child support and the challenges of tracking down delinquent payments.
If passed, the legislation authorizes the use of e-mail in administrative processes and requires brochures published by the agency to be accessible on the OAG's website so that relevant information is readily available to families.
WATCH: Central Texas mom awaits nearly $40K in child support. Parents owed $21B statewide
Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, authored the bill, which would also clarify the proper method of requesting parental locate information from the OAG and allows the agency to stop enforcement measures for a person in jail for an act of family violence committed against the child.
West's office said the legislation is meant to clean up various technical issues the OAG and families have experienced over the last two years related to filings and notices.
'We have expedited process rules that we have to follow in terms of time frames and getting cases resolved. And so, this helps us to meet those and be a more efficient agency,' Joel Rogers, with the Office of the Attorney General's Child Support Division, said during a March Senate hearing.
The bill will head to the House committee next for a public hearing before being sent to the full House for a vote. The Speaker of the House assigned similar legislation, House Bill 4034, authored by Rep. Harold V. Dutton Jr., D-Houston, to a judiciary and civil jurisprudence subcommittee in late March. The legislation was left pending in the subcommittee on Monday.
Another bill making its way through the process, Senate Bill 1404, would authorize a court clerk to send legal documents and notices to an email address using the state's electronic filing system. The legislation passed the Senate on Thursday.
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