What's happening
This bill extends the expiration date for laws enforcing support through suspension of driving privileges from 2017 to 2019.
Why it matters
Extending these enforcement laws means individuals who owe child or spousal support may continue to face suspension of their driver’s licenses through August 31, 2019, rather than the measure expiring in 2017. This maintains a significant leverage tool for agencies trying to collect overdue support payments.
The bill impacts both payors and recipients of support: it can create additional pressure on those behind in payments, while offering continued reassurance to custodial parents or dependents that the state has mechanisms to enforce support orders.
By keeping the law in effect, the state signals that non-payment of court-ordered support remains a serious matter with real-life consequences, which may help deter delinquency and promote more consistent financial responsibility among those obligated to pay.
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Who cares
People who owe support
The bill would extend through August 31, 2019, provisions allowing driving privileges to be suspended to enforce support obligations.
Families owed support
The bill would keep a support-enforcement tool in place for two additional years rather than letting it expire on August 31, 2017.
Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance
The agency requested the bill, which would extend the support-enforcement provisions through August 31, 2019.
Headline styles
Extend License Suspension Rule
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
No co-sponsors yet.
History
- Signed chap.138
- Delivered to governor
- Returned to senate
- Passed assembly
- Ordered to third reading rules cal.171
- Substituted for A7802
- Referred to social services
- Delivered to assembly
- Passed senateVote 61–0
- Advanced to third reading
- 2nd report cal.
- 1st report cal.966
Show 1 earlier action
- Referred to transportation
Companion bill
The same bill in the other chamber. A bill becomes law when one version passes both houses and the governor signs it, so either number can carry it.
Extend License Suspension Law
Assembly Floor Calendar · Sponsor Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn
Full text
1 pageUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
5370
2017-2018 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
March 23, 2017
Introduced by Sen. HAMILTON -- (at request of the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance) -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Transportation
AN ACT to amend chapter 81 of the laws of 1995, amending the vehicle and traffic law and other laws relating to the enforcement of support through the suspension of driving privileges, in relation to the effectiveness thereof
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. Subdivision 19 of section 246 of chapter 81 of the laws of 1995, amending the vehicle and traffic law and other laws relating to the enforcement of support through the suspension of driving privileges, as amended by chapter 29 of the laws of 2015, is amended to read as follows:
19. Sections two hundred one, two hundred eight, two hundred eleven, two hundred thirteen, two hundred fifteen and two hundred sixteen of this act shall expire and be deemed repealed on August 31, [2017] 2019.
§ 2. This act shall take effect immediately and shall be deemed to have been in full force and effect on and after August 31, 2017.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD09941-01-7
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act to amend chapter 81 of the laws of 1995, amending the vehicle and traffic law and other laws relating to the enforcement of support through the suspension of driving privileges, in relation to the effectiveness thereof
Purpose of the bill
This bill would extend, for two years, the expiration of the driver's license suspension process, one of the State's most effective tools to enforce child support obligations.
Summary of provisions
Section 1 of the bill would amend subdivision 19 of § 246 of Chapter 81 of the Laws of 1995 to extend the administrative driver's license suspension process from August 31, 2017 to August 31, 2019.
Section 2 of the bill would provide for an immediate effective date and would be deemed to have been in full force and effect on and after August 31, 2017.
Justification
This bill would extend, for two years, the driver's license suspension process, a highly successful enforcement process utilized by the Office of Temporary Disability Assistance (OTDA) to enforce child support obligations. Using this process, OTDA is able to: (1) identify a parent who fails to pay child support and who also has a driver's license; and (2) notify the parent that his or her driver's license will be suspended unless their child support payments are paid.
Federal law requires that each State must have a driver's license suspension process to improve the effectiveness of child support enforcement (42 U.S.C. § 666 (a)(16)). New York's administrative process satisfies this federal requirement and accounts for substantial collections each year. The expiration of this enforcement tool would have a considerable impact on New York families.
Prior legislative history
This provision was last extended by Chapter 29 of the Laws of 2015 from June 30, 2015 to August 31, 2017.
Fiscal implications
Failing to extend the driver's license suspension process would result in the loss of a powerful deterrent for the non-payment of child support obligations. The driver's license suspension process accounts for approximately $10 million in gross child support collections annually.
Effective date
The bill provides for an immediate effective date and would be deemed to have been in full force and effect on and after August 31, 2017.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.