Child Support Improvement Act of 2004 - Amends parts A (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) (TANF) and D (Child Support and Establishment of Paternity) of title IV of the Social Security Act (SSA) to: (1) modify the rule requiring assignment of support rights as a condition of receiving TANF; (2) increase child support payments to families; (3) revise child support distribution rules; (4) ban the recovery of Medicaid (SSA title XIX) costs for the birth of children for whom support rights have been assigned; and (5) change from mandatory to discretionary the authority of States to retain certain support rights assignments after a certain date (thus giving them the option to discontinue such assignments), and allow to remain assigned any rights assigned before enactment of this Act to a State to support obligations accruing before the date a family first receives TANF (thus giving States the option to discontinue such assignments).
Amends part D (Child Support and Establishment of Paternity) of SSA title IV to provide for: (1) a decrease in the amount of child support arrearage triggering passport denial; (2) use of the tax refund intercept program to collect past-due child support on behalf of children who are not minors; (3) garnishment of compensation paid to veterans for service-connected disabilities in order to enforce child support obligations; and (4) revised interstate enforcement.
Requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services to report to specified congressional committees on the procedures States use to locate custodial parents for whom child support has been collected but not yet distributed.
Provides for the use of new hire information to assist in the administration of unemployment compensation programs under SSA title IV part D.
Amends Federal money and finance law to modify Federal debt collection practices.
Amends SSA title IV part D to provide for the maintenance of technical assistance and Federal Parent Locator Service funding.
Provides for the electronic disbursement of child support payments to families.
Allows States to expand their State disbursement unit to create a centralized payment location for all child support wage withholding.
Directs the Secretary to prescribe regulations to implement the medical support performance measure developed under the Child Support Performance and Incentive Act of 1998.
Prohibits the Secretary from requiring the State of Texas to apply for a waiver from applicable requirements to continue to operate the State's program for monitoring and enforcement of a child support court order without the necessity of a written application.