Section YAE.09.01 — Authority, Purpose And Scope

(a) The purpose of this Ordinance is to establish the legal responsibility of parents to provide financially for their children's general well-being. The Stockbridge-Munsee Community finds its children are among the Tribe's most valuable resources and their financial needs must be met to ensure their success in the future. Therefore, it is the intent of the Tribe to define a process to establish, modify and enforce child support court orders involving members of the Stockbridge-Munsee Community, and all those subject to the jurisdiction of the Stockbridge-Munsee Community.

(b) The Stockbridge-Munsee Community authorized the creation of the Stockbridge-Munsee Tribal Child Support Agency (SMTCSA) (Agency) and hereby delegates to that Agency, through the Child Support Manager the responsibility and authority for implementing, monitoring and enforcing this Law. Included in this delegation of authority is rule-making authority to facilitate enforcement of child support orders and obligations. The enforcement authority delegated under this section includes the authority to make rules that govern the compliance of other tribal departments, businesses, agencies, boards, committees or other tribal entity that may be in a position to facilitate the collection or enforcement of child support obligations. An example of a Tribal Child Support Agency rule affecting a tribal department might, for instance, be a rule that requires the loan department to either deny a tribal loan in cases where a noncustodial parent payor was more than one month in arrears on child support payments or grant the loan conditioned on a portion of that loan being used to satisfy the outstanding child support arrears.

(c) The SMTCSA is not an administrative decision-making body and is not subject to actions under Section TCT.02.23 of Stockbridge-Munsee Tribal Law. This Chapter is expressly exempted from the operation of Section TCT.02.23.

(d) Nothing in this Law is intended to waive the sovereign immunity of the Stockbridge-Munsee Community or its application to the SMTCSA and its agents and employees acting within the scope of their authority.