BOISE — A bill its proponents said would protect and enhance Idaho’s child support enforcement system sailed easily to legislative passage Monday during a one-day special session of the Idaho Legislature.

The legislation that passed the House 49-21 then gained 33-2 Senate approval effectively overturned an April 10 action of the Legislature in which a similar measure that had passed the Senate unanimously stalled by a single vote in the House Judiciary, Rules, and Administration Committee.

The same House judiciary committee voted 12-5 Monday to send the legislation to the House floor where opponents had their say on the amended version of the April bill.

Critics charged that Idaho is being pressured to conform to an agreement worked out at the “2007 Hague Convention on International Recovery of Child Support and Other Forms of Family Maintenance,” to maintain more than $16 million in federal child support enforcement assistance. House Bill 1, which passed Monday and is likely to be signed by Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter — who called for the special session to revisit the child support enforcement issue — also brings Idaho into compliance with the terms of a 2014 federal law.

House members opposing HB1 included Rep. Ronald Nate, R-Rexburg, who characterized the possibility that the Idaho Child Support Program could lose more than $16 million in federal funding without passing HB1 as “gangster-style coercion.”

“We should be voting on the merits of the bill and not on the threats of federal reprisals,” Nate said.

Nate added: “Join me in standing up to the federal extortion.” 

Proponents promoted House Bill 1 as a measure that would help Idaho collect child support payments internationally through reciprocal collection agreements with foreign countries. Other U.S. states that sign on to the international treaty created at the Hague Convention also could benefit, proponents said.

“This bill provides a broader framework for cooperation with foreign countries,” said Sen. Grant Burgoyne, D-Boise, the Senate floor sponsor.

Proponents of HB1 also noted the legislation would protect Idaho from losing more than $16 million in federal child support enforcement assistance, help the state keep $30 million more for related programs — including Head Start and other programs — and ensure continued of the collection of $205 million annually (the amount collected in 2014) in child support payments in the Gem State.

Some opponents said Idaho would lose state sovereignty in the courts by agreeing to the treaty created at the Hague Convention.

“We’re not losing any sovereignty by this; we’re actually gaining (by being able to collect child support to a greater extent internationally),” said HB1’s House floor sponsor, Rep. Lynn Luker, R-Boise. 

In addition to Nate, Rep. Ken Andrus, R-Lava Hot Springs, voted against HB1.

Richard Armstrong, director of the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, testified before the joint House and Senate judiciary committees that Idaho has $600 million in child support payments “in arrears.”