National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws

211 E. Ontario St., Suite 1300, Chicago, IL 60611
tel 312-915-0195, fax 312-915-0187

For Immediate Release

Washington Becomes First State to Adopt Important Changes to State Child Support Law

April 2, 2002 — Washington has become the first state to enact important new changes to child and family support legislation that is used nationwide. Amendments to the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act (UIFSA), HB 2347, were signed into law by Gov. Gary Locke on March 27. These changes become effective in Washington on June 13, 2002.

UIFSA, completed by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL) in 1992 and amended in 1996, represented a major overhaul of child support laws by limiting modification of child and family support orders to a single state, eliminating interstate jurisdictional disputes. Adopted in every state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, UIFSA was amended in 2001 by NCCUSL.

"The original Act was an enormously important step in eliminating multiple litigation across state lines and countering inefficiencies that existed in the child support enforcement system — all barriers to getting money to the children who desperately needed it," says John M. McCabe, Legislative Director of NCCUSL. "This Act has been in effect in every state since 1997. The amendments are not meant to make fundamental changes in the policies and procedures established in the original Act; rather the amendments should clarify many of the provisions, increasing the Act's usefulness."

The purpose of UIFSA is to ensure that state borders are not obstacles for collecting child support from reluctant parents obligated to pay. UIFSA assures that, whenever possible, only one child support order from one state will be in effect at any given time. Except in narrowly defined circumstances, the only state able to modify a support order is the one which continues to have exclusive jurisdiction over the matter.

The new amendments include expanding the definition of "state" so other countries may have their orders enforced in the U.S. under the terms of UIFSA. It also allows for an individual state to make an arrangement with a foreign country for reciprocal enforcement of child support. Procedures for voluntary acknowledgment of paternity have also been integrated into the Act.

The 2001 Amendments to UIFSA have also been introduced this year in six other state legislatures: California, Illinois, Mississippi, Nebraska, Virginia and West Virginia.

The National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws is now in its 111th year. The organization comprises more than 350 lawyers, judges, and law professors, appointed by the states as well as the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, to draft proposals for uniform and model laws and work toward their enactment in their legislatures. Since its inception in 1892, the group has promulgated more than 200 acts, among them such bulwarks of state statutory law as the Uniform Commercial Code, the Uniform Probate Code, and the Uniform Partnership Act.

For further information, please contact John McCabe, Michael Kerr, or Katie Robinson
at 312-915-0195, or Gabrielle Bamberger at 212-333-5222.