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


Office of House Bill AnalysisC.S.H.B. 2275
By: Giddings
Juvenile Justice & Family Issues
3/26/2001
Committee Report (Substituted)



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.  C.S.H.B. 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

C.S.H.B. 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 courthouses where family
law cases are heard 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.

COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL TO SUBSTITUTE

C.S.H.B. 2275 differs from the original bill by requiring that all Title
IV-D brochures published by the agency are available to the public at
courthouses where family law cases are heard in the state, rather than at
each courthouse in the state.