2008 Amendments to the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act ...

UNIFORM INTERSTATE FAMILY SUPPORT ACT
PREFATORY NOTE
I. History of Uniform Family Support Acts
A. URESA and RURESA
In 1950 the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, a.k.a.
Uniform Law Commission (NCCUSL or ULC), began a series of uniform acts dealing with
cases involving establishment, enforcement, and modification of orders for “any duty of support”
across state lines. This evolving process started with a revolutionary idea entitled the Uniform
Reciprocal Enforcement of Support Act (URESA), promulgated in 1950, and amended in 1952
and 1958. Further amendments in 1968 were so significant that the act was renamed the Revised
Uniform Reciprocal Enforcement of Support Act (RURESA). Ultimately, all the states enacted
one or more versions of the reciprocal support enforcement acts. A comprehensive history of the
creation process from 1950 through 1968 is provided by William J. Brockelbank & Felix
Infausto, Interstate Enforcement of Family Support (Bobbs-Merrill Co., 2d ed. 1971). As with
most revolutions, without it subsequent development would not have been possible.
B. UIFSA (1992) (1996)
By 1988, however, problems had arisen regarding the application of RURESA in
practice. After four iterations that lasted over four decades, revisiting the subject was deemed
necessary. A drafting committee began to prepare amendments for RURESA, but the task proved
more formidable than expected. The result was the promulgation of the Uniform Interstate
Family Support Act (UIFSA (1992)), which was designed to serve as a complete replacement for
URESA and RURESA. In 1993 Arkansas and Texas were the first to enact the new act, and
within three years thirty-five states had adopted it.
The year 1996 was an eventful one for UIFSA. First, a drafting committee was convened
in Spring 1996 in response to requests from representatives of employer groups for specific
statutory directions regarding interstate child-support income withholding orders. Second, the
child-support community (especially the state IV-D programs funded by federal subsidies)
requested a substantive and procedural review. As a result, the NCCUSL at its annual conference
in July adopted significant amendments and promulgated UIFSA (1996). Less than one month
later, the U.S. Congress assured that nationwide acceptance of the amended Act was virtually
certain. In the “welfare reform” legislation passed in August 1996, officially known as the
Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA), the
enactment of UIFSA, as amended, was mandated as a condition of state eligibility for the federal
funding of child support enforcement, as follows:
Sec. 321. Adoption of Uniform State Laws (42 U.S.C. § 666) is amended by adding at the
end the following new subsection:
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