Sponsors (2)
The bill strengthens procedural protections and narrows administrative passport authority to limit overreach while creating enforcement constraints that may reduce agencies' flexibility to prevent travel and collect child support, shifting the trade-off toward individual notice and clearer limits at the potential cost of weaker enforcement tools for creditors and custodial parents.
Immigrants and other individuals facing passport revocation: will generally receive advance notice before a passport is revoked, giving them an opportunity to respond or seek remedies.
Immigrants and taxpayers: the law narrows agency authority by removing vague 'restriction' or 'limitation' categories and authorizing revocation only, which reduces administrative ambiguity and the potential for overreach in passport controls.
Immigrants abroad whose passports have been revoked: can obtain a temporary, limited passport to return to the U.S. in an emergency, reducing the risk of being stranded overseas.
Custodial parents and low-income families relying on child-support enforcement: may face reduced leverage to collect overdue support because agencies lose intermediate passport measures short of full revocation.
Immigrants and individuals otherwise subject to passport actions: lose lesser enforcement options (temporary restrictions or limitations) that could be used instead of full revocation, removing a flexible tool short of removing travel entirely.
Taxpayers and enforcement authorities: requiring advance notice before revocation could delay the government's ability to promptly prevent international travel by serious child-support debtors, potentially allowing flight before action takes effect.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Narrows passport-related enforcement for child support arrears to revocation only, requires notice before revocation, and allows emergency short-term return passports for people abroad.
Narrows the federal government's options for dealing with passport eligibility when a person owes past-due child support: instead of allowing "restriction or limitation," the law permits only passport revocation. It requires notice to the individual before revocation and allows the State Department to issue a short-term emergency passport to someone abroad who needs to return to the United States. The changes take effect October 1, 2026. The bill changes the text of federal law to clarify the Secretary's authority, adds a notice requirement before revoking a passport, and creates a narrowly tailored emergency return passport exception for people located overseas.
Official title: To require the Secretary of State to revoke any United States passport issued to an individual, on receipt of a certification by the Secretary of Health and Human Services that the individual has a child support arrearage exceeding $2,500.
Introduced December 18, 2025 by Beth Van Duyne · Last progress April 28, 2026