Pennsylvania parents who are having difficulty receiving their court-ordered child support payments may be pleased to learn that the state of Idaho has reversed its opposition to an international child support treaty. On May 18, the Idaho Legislature approved a set of federally-mandated child support rules that include the international treaty. Last month, legislators had rejected the bill amidst fears that participation in the international treaty could give rise to Islamic law in the U.S.
The purpose of the international child support enforcement and collection is so that parents living in different countries could send and receive child support payments more easily. Each year, around 150,000 international child support cases involving $600 million in payments remain active. The treaty has already been signed by several countries.
However, ratification of the treaty in the U.S. must be done on a state-by-state basis. So far, 28 states have agreed to ratify the treaty. By not approving the legislation, Idaho’s payment processing systems for all child support payments would have been threatened. Critics of the bill said that it was extortion by the federal government while Health and Human Services officials said that it was commonplace for mandated legislation to be linked to federal child support funding.
Parents who are receiving monthly child support payments often rely on the funds to cover their family’s basic living expenses. When payments are not being sent on time, a parent may want to talk to a family law attorney. An attorney may be able to help a custodial parent to file a petition with the court to enforce child support payments.
Source: Fox News, “Legislators pass child support bill that had been nixed over Islamic law,” May 18, 2015