HBA-CBW H.B. 2275 77(R)    BILL ANALYSIS


Office of House Bill AnalysisH.B. 2275
By: Giddings
Juvenile Justice & Family Issues
3/11/2001
Introduced



BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 

It is not uncommon for a custodial parent to take off work to attend a
hearing regarding child support, only to learn that the noncustodial parent
has not been served a citation. As a result, the custodial parent, who may
already be under financial constraints, must take off work and pay for
parking only to repeat the process again.  House Bill 2275 requires the
Office of the Attorney General to update its child support automated system
in a timely manner to reflect the most accurate and current information
regarding service of citations. 

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does
not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state
officer, department, agency, or institution. 

ANALYSIS

House Bill 2275 amends the Family Code to require the Office of the
Attorney General (OAG) to update the child support automated system to
inform the parties in a suit of the service of citation in the suit not
later than the first business day after the date the OAG receives notice
that citation has been served. The bill provides that the information must
be available by telephone or on the Internet.  The bill requires the OAG to
ensure that all published brochures are available to the public at each
courthouse in the state.  The bill requires the OAG to conduct a study of
the telephone interactive voice response system to determine the
feasibility of establishing an automated outbound telephone call system to
notify parties in a suit of significant actions. 

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2001.