U.S. Representative Beth Van Duyne (TX-24) announced that the Ensuring Children Receive Support Act (H.R. 6903) was approved by the House Ways and Means Committee with bipartisan support, receiving a vote of 40-2. The bill, co-sponsored with Chairman Jason Smith (MO-08) and Representative Jimmy Panetta (CA-19), now moves to the full House for consideration.
“Ensuring children are taken care of should be non-negotiable. When child support obligations go unmet, children are the ones who suffer,” said Rep. Van Duyne. “This bill strengthens enforcement efforts and ensures we are standing firmly on the side of America’s children. I’m grateful to Chairman Smith, Representative Panetta, and members of the committee for helping to advance this bipartisan, commonsense legislation so it can be considered by the full House.”
Ways and Means Chairman Smith stated, “I commend Representative Van Duyne for her strong, long-standing leadership on this legislation to put children first. The Ensuring Children Receive Support Act strengthens an enforcement tool to help collect past-due child support and ensure parents meet their obligations to their children. Thanks to Representative Van Duyne’s efforts, we are prioritizing the needs of children across America to make sure they get the support and resources they are owed.”
Representative Panetta added, “Child support payments are not just mandated by law, they provide important resources and support so that children can succeed. The Ensuring Children Receive Support Act would help delinquent parents make those payments by preventing them from leaving the country. By empowering the State Department to revoke passports of parents who are delinquent in their child support payments, we can continue to support those children with practical solutions to ensuring child support gets paid.”
The proposed legislation aims to strengthen enforcement under the Passport Denial Program. Currently, individuals owing more than $2,500 in child support may have new passport applications denied or previously issued passports revoked at the discretion of the State Department if certified by Health and Human Services. Since passports must only be renewed every ten years, existing enforcement is limited in scope; this bill would require revocation of previously issued passports.
Beth Van Duyne has represented Texas’s 24th district since winning election in 2020 against Candace Valenzuela by a narrow margin. She subsequently won re-election in 2022 against Jan McDowell and again in 2024 against Sam Eppler with increasing margins each cycle.
For further details on H.R. 6903 or its text visit HERE.