Relating to child support.
HB 3348 is a broad overhaul of Oregon’s child support statutes and related cross-references. The bill modernizes the Oregon Child Support Program by replacing older “support enforcement” terminology with “child support services,” expanding the Department of Justice’s administrative authority, and updating notice, service, confidentiality, and recordkeeping rules. It also authorizes more electronic communication in many child support proceedings, clarifies how the department and district attorneys coordinate, and revises procedures for establishing, modifying, enforcing, and satisfying child support and medical support orders.
A major feature of the bill is its treatment of multiple or conflicting child support orders. HB 3348 creates detailed rules for identifying the controlling order when more than one support judgment exists for the same child and obligor, including procedures for a later-issued judgment to supersede earlier ones and for reconciling arrears and credits. The bill also updates paternity procedures, income withholding, license suspension for noncompliance, tax refund interception, medical support enforcement, and special rules for children attending school after age 18. In addition, it repeals several outdated statutes and makes numerous conforming amendments across family law, tax, employment, public assistance, and retirement-related provisions.
The bill substantially revises Oregon law governing child support administration, enforcement, and related family-law procedures across chapters 18, 25, 107, 109, 110, 419B, and several other statutes. It centralizes and clarifies the Department of Justice’s role in child support case handling, expands the use of electronic notice and service where authorized, and updates statutory references to align with the Oregon Child Support Program’s current structure. It also changes how arrearages, credits, and satisfaction of judgments are recorded and enforced, and it adjusts related confidentiality and information-sharing rules for agencies, employers, schools, insurers, and financial institutions.
The bill appears to have been broadly supported and noncontroversial in the legislative process. It passed the House committee 6-0, the House floor 55-0, the Senate committee 5-0, and the Senate floor 29-0, indicating unanimous support at each recorded stage. The absence of committee transcript material limits insight into detailed debate, but the voting history suggests the measure was viewed as a technical, administrative, and policy cleanup bill rather than a highly divisive one.
No significant opposition is reflected in the available record, and no committee transcript excerpts were provided showing substantive disagreement. The most likely areas of policy sensitivity are the bill’s expanded administrative enforcement tools, including license suspension, income withholding, tax refund interception, and broader information-sharing with agencies and employers. Another potentially sensitive area is the bill’s detailed rules for resolving multiple child support judgments and its use of electronic service, but the unanimous votes suggest these issues did not generate notable controversy in the recorded proceedings.