CONFERENCE COMMITTEE REPORT NO. 38

                            Honolulu, Hawaii
                                            , 1999

                            RE:   S.B. No. 1003
                                  S.D. 1
                                  H.D. 1
                                  C.D. 1




Honorable Norman Mizuguchi
President of the Senate
Twentieth State Legislature
Regular Session of 1999
State of Hawaii

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say
Speaker, House of Representatives
Twentieth State Legislature
Regular Session of 1999
State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Conference on the disagreeing vote of the
Senate to the amendments proposed by the House of Representatives
in S.B. No. 1003, S.D. 1, H.D. 1, entitled:  

     "A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CHILD SUPPORT ENFORCEMENT," 

having met, and after full and free discussion, has agreed to
recommend and does recommend to the respective Houses the final
passage of this bill in an amended form.

     The purpose of this measure, as received by your Committee,
is to impose penalties upon employers who fail to provide timely
payments to employees obligated to pay child support, and to
impose penalties upon the Child Support Enforcement Agency (CSEA)
for failure to disburse payments within five working days after
collection.

     Your Committee acknowledges the continuing frustration of
many custodial parents who are dependent upon the timely receipt
of child support payments to meet their basic living expenses.
Unfortunately, the disbursement system for child support payments
continues to be plagued with problems, which further delays

 
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payments to custodial parents.  While your Committee agrees that
imposing penalties for late payments may be an incentive to
ensure timeliness, a more proactive approach to addressing timely
payments would be to provide additional opportunity for the
obligor party to opt out of the system upon petition to the
court. 

     Therefore, upon further consideration, your Committee has
amended this measure by:

     (1)  Deleting the provisions imposing penalties upon
          employers and the CSEA;

     (2)  Establishing a notice provision to be provided to
          parties of divorce informing them of the opportunity to
          enter into alternative arrangements for direct payment
          of child support;

     (3)  Allowing parties to petition the court to opt out of
          the child support enforcement agency system at any time
          upon petition to the court;

     (4)  Requiring the court to assign such petitions priority
          on the dockets for expeditious processing;

     (5)  Allowing the CSEA to issue orders permitting
          alternative arrangements; and 

     (6)  Making technical, non-substantive changes for the
          purposes of clarity and style. 

     Your Committee on Conference is in accord with the intent
and purpose of S.B. No. 1003, S.D. 1, H.D. 1, as amended herein,
and recommends that it pass Final Reading in the form attached
hereto as S.B. No. 1003, S.D. 1, H.D. 1, C.D. 1.

                                   Respectfully submitted,

MANAGERS ON THE PART OF THE        MANAGERS ON THE PART OF THE
            HOUSE                             SENATE
                                   
                                   
                                   
______________________________     ______________________________
DENNIS A. ARAKAKI, Co-Chair        AVERY B. CHUMBLEY, Co-Chair

 
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______________________________     ______________________________
PAUL T. OSHIRO, Co-Chair           MATTHEW M. MATSUNAGA, Co-Chair
                                   
                                   
                                   
______________________________     ______________________________
SCOTT K. SAIKI, Co-Chair           SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Member
                                   
                                   
                                   
______________________________     ______________________________
PAUL WHALEN, Member                NORMAN SAKAMOTO, Member
                                   
                                   
                                   
                                   ______________________________
                                   WHITNEY ANDERSON, Member


 
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