House adopts 'deadbeat dad' bill — with changes

Utah House members adopted a "deadbeat dad" bill Monday, but only after stripping the original bill of some of its authority.

HB83 would give to the Office of Recovery Services the power to suspend a person's driver's license if the person were overdue on child support payments.

Various amendments were approved by the House that would cut the delinquent noncustodial parent some slack. The most far-reaching, by Rep. LaVar Christensen, R-Sandy, would allow a delinquent parent to apply for a temporary, 90-day license that would allow him to drive only to work, to educational meetings and/or to child visits.

Sponsoring Rep. Julie Fischer, R-Fruit Heights, said custodial parents — usually the divorced mother of the children — are owed a collective $325 million that is going unpaid. Only 14 states, including Utah, don't have driver's license suspension as a "tool" in fighting owed child support.

Others states have found that as much as 7 percent of unpaid payments come in because of the use — or threat of use — of suspension of drivers' licenses, she said. Utah's ORS hopes that more than $2 million could come in right away if HB83 passes.

Opponents of the bill, however, said the "punishment doesn't fit the crime," and suspending a person's driver's license is too drastic a move for a parent who, because of a loss of a job or other problems, may fall behind in child support payments.