All Roll Calls
Yes: 95 • No: 0
OregonHB 33482025 Regular SessionHouseWALLET
Relating to child support.
Sponsored By: Jason Kropf (Democratic)
Signed by Governor
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Bill Overview
Analyzed Economic Effects
22 provisions identified: 7 benefits, 4 costs, 11 mixed.
Stronger health coverage rights for children
Health plans cannot reject an otherwise eligible child because the parents are unmarried, the child is not a tax dependent, or the child lives elsewhere. Plans must help custodial parents file claims and receive payments directly. Court-ordered or agency-ordered enrollment does not have to wait for an enrollment season. Ordered coverage cannot end without written proof that the order ended or comparable coverage starts by the cancellation date. Children adopted or placed for adoption while the parent is eligible get the same coverage terms as natural children, without exclusions solely for preexisting conditions.
Benefit back payments can reduce support debt
A court can credit child-support debt dollar for dollar for qualifying retroactive Social Security or Veterans' benefits. Benefits must result from the paying parent's disability or retirement. They must go to the child or a representative payee for the child's use and benefit. Court approval follows Oregon Child Support Program rules and is not automatic.
Protected bank funds survive some garnishments
For covered garnishments, banks must protect a base balance of $2,500 as of April 4, 2024, indexed to the West Region consumer price index. This base does not apply to writs carrying a federal-benefit garnishment notice, a support-debt attestation, or a restitution judgment. For covered accounts above the base, banks must review qualifying electronic deposits during the legal lookback period and protect qualifying amounts above the base. For support or restitution writs, banks must still review accounts and preserve access to qualifying benefit, retirement, assistance, unemployment, Black Lung, and workers' compensation deposits. When a required review finds qualifying deposits and a positive balance, banks must send a separate notice within three business days; one notice can cover multiple accounts.
Some public pensions gain garnishment protection
For Oregon public retirement benefits under ORS chapters 238 and 238A, some orders no longer trigger reduced garnishment protection. Orders or notices under ORS 25.501 to 25.556 no longer, by themselves, limit the retirement exemption to 50%. The 50% limit still applies when the action independently concerns a support obligation or another listed matter.
Medicaid cannot count against health coverage
Group health plans cannot use Medicaid eligibility to decide a person's coverage or payment. Oregon gains the person's right to collect from another party legally responsible for care Medicaid paid for. Responsible parties must provide requested coverage information and cannot impose unequal requirements on state agencies using those payment rights. They cannot reject qualifying recovery claims solely for specified filing or documentation defects. That protection applies when claims arrive within three years after care and enforcement starts within six years after claim submission.
Unemployment checks remain partly collectable for support
Only 50% of unemployment benefits are protected by this exemption during qualifying support collection under the federal child-support program. The rule covers child-support obligations and qualifying orders or notices under the listed family and juvenile laws. The remaining benefits are not protected by this exemption, though other collection limits can still apply.
Workers face 90-day wage garnishments
A wage garnishment covers earlier unpaid work and work during the 90 days after the employer receives the writ. It applies when the person still works there or the employer still owes wages. A payday exception requires arrival within two business days before payday, direct deposit or independent payroll processing, and payment instructions issued before arrival. Employers must calculate exempt wages and send the garnishable amount as directed. A recipient of an original writ or copy within 60 days after issuance must respond within seven calendar days, extended past weekends and legal holidays.
Cross-border families get broader support services
On written request from an authorized foreign country, Oregon can establish, change, or end support orders. It can also address parentage, health coverage, and child-support collection, including proposing an order when none exists. These actions can help families obtain support or require a parent to pay. For interstate referrals, Oregon can serve the referring state's agency instead of a recipient who lives there and receives its services. Electronic service requires that agency's approval and a delivery method set by Oregon rules.
Incarcerated parents get limited support relief
After at least 180 consecutive days of incarceration, covered parents are presumed unable to pay, and support stops building up unless disproved. Payments generally restart at 50% of the earlier amount on the first day of the first month after day 120 following release. Qualifying incarceration and post-release months can reduce arrears; a successful objection after suspension can instead trigger 50% payments the month after the finding. Orders set to zero before January 1, 2018, follow separate rules and restart at the full amount 61 days after release. Orders under ORS 25.501 to 25.556 are excluded; relief reduces covered parents' debt but also reduces support available to children.
Later judgments can replace overlapping support
When Oregon provides child-support services, a court or administrator must give a qualifying later judgment priority over an earlier judgment. The judgments must cover the same paying parent, child, and time period. The rule also covers later judgments that switch which parent pays without expressly ending the earlier obligation. All parties must have had a chance to challenge the later support amount. This can end an overlapping obligation, while changing which parent owes or receives support.
Cash assistance can pause parents' support debt
Parents receiving qualifying cash assistance are presumed unable to pay child support unless that presumption is disproved. Covered programs include TANF, SSI, general assistance, and specified Oregon programs. Support does not build up from the first through the last month of qualifying payments, and those months can reduce arrears. The state must notify the parties within 30 days, and parties have 30 days to object. Billing resumes when benefits end; the pause eases the paying parent's debt but can reduce support available to the child.
Employers must enroll children in coverage
Oregon employers must allow an eligible child's enrollment when a court or agency order requires the employee to provide coverage. Enrollment does not have to wait for the usual enrollment season. If the employee does not apply, the other parent or an authorized state agency can request enrollment. Employers must keep coverage unless written evidence permits cancellation or they end family coverage for all employees. Employers must deduct the employee's premium share, if any, from pay and send it to the insurer.
Older students can join support cases
Unmarried children ages 18 through 20 receive notice when a support modification may affect their rights as children attending school. They must provide an address to the Department of Justice. Notice can arrive by first-class mail or, with their approval, an electronic method set by rule. To join the case as a party, they must send a written request within 30 days after notice.
Parents can choose electronic support notices
Recipients can authorize electronic delivery for specified child-support notices and documents using methods set by agency rules; mail remains available. Covered documents include payment-routing notices, outside-payment credit notices, debt objections, and specified motions and hearing notices. A notice about enforcing past-due support can also use mail with delivery confirmation. Possible license, certificate, permit, or registration suspension notices can use authorized electronic delivery or first-class mail to addresses in agency records. Those notices give the person 30 days to contest, comply, or enter a written agreement.
Some parents lose periodic support reviews
Orders under ORS 25.501 to 25.556 are excluded from the specified periodic support review and modification process. That process otherwise allows review after three years, or sooner under agency rules. The exclusion removes that review route without directly changing the support amount.
Youth cases lose some support exceptions
For support assigned to the state, Oregon Youth Authority custody or youth rehabilitation no longer supports the specified income-withholding exception. A limited exception remains for children in Department of Human Services custody. It requires harm to family reunification or the parent's ability to support another child, plus a written alternative-payment agreement. Separately, adjudicated youth are removed from definitions used in the administrative support procedures under ORS 25.501 to 25.556. Those procedures no longer cover them through the former references.
Parents can combine support service applications
Parents seeking child support can include a program service application in their court motion or petition. This also covers filings seeking a support judgment payable through the Department of Justice. When a dependent child receives public assistance, the administrator can seek support from parents or another legally responsible person. That authority is no longer limited to the assistance definition in ORS 25.501. Administrative support cases do not have to be combined with juvenile cases or other actions under the law's consolidation rule.
State fronts parentage testing costs
The Oregon Child Support Program must initially pay blood-test costs in cases receiving services under ORS 25.080. A party can seek to reopen paternity for unfinished testing within one year after the paternity order or voluntary acknowledgment. In reopened cases, the program pays ordered testing costs and state registrar fees. The program can recover these costs from the person requesting testing. Support already paid is not refunded if paternity is later set aside.
Agencies share more support-related financial records
Oregon's Child Support Program can exchange database information needed for its state and federal duties. Approved agreements with another Justice Department division or the Revenue Department can share employer hiring reports for uses including debt collection. That sharing applies only before entry into either specified state data system, and recipient agencies cannot be charged more than actual expenses. The child-support division and district attorneys can receive specified personal-property tax information for cases where they provide services. Employment Department records can also be used in court to establish, enforce, or change support in those cases, expanding agency access to personal information.
Four child support statutes are repealed
The law repeals ORS 25.575, 25.576, 25.577, and 25.710. The supplied text does not explain what those statutes covered. Their effects on household costs, rights, and support procedures cannot be determined from this provision alone.
Support agencies gain sensitive record access
Oregon public colleges can disclose a student's Social Security number when law enforcement or an agency providing child-support services requests it. Public and medical assistance records lose their legal privilege in proceedings directly tied to administering those benefits or child-support services. Those records can also be used to establish or enforce federally supported child-support obligations. On request, the state registrar must give the child-support agency voluntary paternity acknowledgment forms for birth records executed and filed after October 1, 1995. These access rules support agency work but reduce privacy protections for affected records.
Unclaimed support funds stay outside treasury
Specified funds held by Oregon's Child Support Program are excluded from the usual transfer of presumed-abandoned property to the State Treasurer. These are the funds described in ORS 180.345. The supplied text does not establish who ultimately receives them or whether household access changes.
Sponsors & Cosponsors
Sponsor
Jason Kropf
Democratic • House
Cosponsors
There are no cosponsors for this bill.
Roll Call Votes
Senate vote • 5/12/2025
Third reading. Carried by Prozanski. Passed.
Yes: 29 • No: 0
Senate vote • 4/29/2025
Human Services: Heard and Reported Out
Yes: 5 • No: 0
House vote • 4/8/2025
Third reading. Carried by Kropf. Passed.
Yes: 55 • No: 0
House vote • 3/25/2025
Early Childhood and Human Services: Heard and Reported Out with Amendments
Yes: 6 • No: 0
Actions Timeline
Chapter 99, (2025 Laws): Effective date January 1, 2026.
6/11/2025HouseGovernor signed.
5/19/2025HousePresident signed.
5/14/2025SenateSpeaker signed.
5/13/2025HouseThird reading. Carried by Prozanski. Passed.
5/12/2025SenateCarried over to 05-12 by unanimous consent.
5/8/2025SenateCarried over to 05-08 by unanimous consent.
5/7/2025SenateSecond reading.
5/6/2025SenateRecommendation: Do pass the A-Eng. bill.
5/6/2025SenateWork Session held.
4/29/2025SenatePublic Hearing held.
4/22/2025SenateReferred to Human Services.
4/9/2025SenateFirst reading. Referred to President's desk.
4/9/2025SenateThird reading. Carried by Kropf. Passed.
4/8/2025HouseRules suspended. Carried over to April 8, 2025 Calendar.
4/7/2025HouseRules suspended. Carried over to April 7, 2025 Calendar.
4/3/2025HouseSecond reading.
4/2/2025HouseRecommendation: Do pass with amendments and be printed A-Engrossed.
4/1/2025HouseWork Session held.
3/25/2025HousePublic Hearing held.
3/18/2025HouseReferred to Early Childhood and Human Services.
1/30/2025HouseFirst reading. Referred to Speaker's desk.
1/28/2025House
Bill Text
HECHS Amendment -1 (Adopted)
3/25/2025
HECHS Amendment -1 (Proposed)
3/18/2025
A-Engrossed
Enrolled
House Amendments to Introduced
Introduced
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