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A MEMORIAL

EXPRESSING THE SUPPORT OF THE NEW MEXICO SENATE FOR FEDERAL

CHANGES TO IMPROVE THE NAVAJO NATION'S ABILITY TO COLLECT AND

TRACK CHILD SUPPORT PAYMENTS.

WHEREAS, the Navajo Nation is the largest Native

American tribe within the boundaries of the United States and

is larger than ten of the fifty states; and

WHEREAS, Navajo children under the age of eighteen

comprise almost half the total population, and some sixty-one

percent of Navajo grandparents are responsible for

grandchildren under the age of eighteen; and

WHEREAS, over half the population of the Navajo Nation

lives below the poverty level, and over forty percent of

persons on the Navajo Nation are unemployed; and

WHEREAS, collecting child support for children whose

parents are able to pay child support may be critical in the

health and education of a good portion of Navajo children;

and

WHEREAS, the federal government granted the Navajo

Nation and thirty-nine other tribes the ability to collect

child support, establish paternity and enforce child and

medical support obligations, but did not grant the Navajo

Nation access to information essential for investigation and

enforcement; and

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WHEREAS, the federal government has suggested that

states charge the Navajo Nation for access to important

personal files of potential payers of child support; and

WHEREAS, the Navajo Nation has suggested five changes

the United States congress can make to improve the ability to

collect child support for Navajo Nation members; and

WHEREAS, the Navajo Nation has collected almost three

million dollars ($3,000,000) in past-due child support and

received more than ten thousand acknowledgments of paternity

for Navajo children; and

WHEREAS, the Navajo Nation department of child support

enforcement has collected a total of seven million two

hundred forty-eight thousand two hundred thirty-seven dollars

($7,248,237) in child support during fiscal year 2007;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE

STATE OF NEW MEXICO that the New Mexico congressional

delegation be encouraged to take appropriate steps on behalf

of the Navajo Nation to increase its effectiveness in child

support collection and enforcement; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that New Mexico's congressional

delegation be urged to take the following steps to improve

child support collection on the Navajo Nation:

A. eliminate the federal prohibition on the Navajo

Nation's ability to purchase and develop its own tribal child

support computer system and, therefore, remove the need for

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the Navajo Nation to pay another government, such as the

state of New Mexico, in order to get case information on

Navajo residents living in New Mexico;

B. allow the Navajo Nation to access "locate and

enforcement tools" directly, removing the need to contract

with other governments to provide passport denial or

revocation, multistate financial institution data matching,

the parent locator service, tax offset data and demonstration

grants made available by the federal government;

C. encourage the federal government to complete

its design of a model tribal child support system to increase

efficiency and effectiveness;

D. reduce the percentage of funds required from

the Navajo Nation in order to match federal funds so that the

Navajo Nation can receive federal funds to help collect child

support even during times of declining employment; and

E. provide the Navajo Nation an appeal of the

federal determinations of whether a hardship is severe enough

to permit a waiver of strict rules governing required tribal

matching funds, and add a possible waiver into federal

language for extreme economic problems instead of allowing a

waiver only for natural disasters, including extreme weather

and calamities such as hurricanes and earthquakes; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be

transmitted to all members of the state's congressional

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delegation; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be

transmitted to the president of the Navajo Nation and to the

speaker of the house of the Navajo Nation as well as to the

secretary of human services.