Topeka — Legislation aimed at improving the operation of the state's child support processing center has been endorsed by a House committee.
The bill would create an oversight committee. It also would give the Legislature's official endorsement to the center, but would shut it down in two years unless lawmakers acted again.
Thursday's voice vote by the House Judiciary Committee sent the bill to the full chamber for debate.
The Kansas Payment Center opened last Sept. 29 as the state ended its county-by-county child support system to comply with a federal law mandating centralization.
The Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services hired Tier Technologies Inc. of California to process child support checks at the center.
Some parents have complained to legislators that the center has failed to process checks in a timely way. SRS estimates that since the center's inception, about 6,000 checks were not processed on time.
Legislators have never endorsed creation of the processing center, which was established under an order from the Kansas Supreme Court.
The oversight committee would include representatives from SRS, the Legislature and the court system, as well as parents who send and receive child support.
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