State Dept. Revoking Passports Over Unpaid Child Support in Revival of 1996 Law

The U.S. State Department announced on Thursday that it will begin revoking passports of parents who owe significant child support.

The department said that it would begin revoking U.S. passports of parents who owe $100,000 in unpaid child support — some 2700 U.S. passport holders — before expanding to include any parents who owe more than $2,500 in child support. The Department of Health and Human Services is still collecting data from state agencies to determine how many people this would include.

In its announcement, the State Department said that it is using “commonsense tools to support American families and strengthen compliance with U.S. laws.” It claimed that this measure would enforce parents’ “legal and moral obligations to their children” and therefore support “the welfare of American children by exacting real consequences for child support delinquency.”

“Once these parents resolve their debts, they can once again enjoy the privilege of a U.S. passport,” said Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Mora Namdar.

This decision aims to revive a 1996 law that has not been strictly enforced in the past. The law, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996, enacted by former President Bill Clinton, cut welfare massively, put welfare in state rather than federal hands, and, among other measures, set in place the ability for the State Department to revoke passports of parents owing child support. Upon signing the document, Clinton declared: “Today we are taking a historic chance to make welfare what it was meant to be: a second chance, not a way of life.” But since the 1996 bill was signed into law, the number of people living in deep poverty more than doubled.

Notably, the $2,500 threshold for unpaid child support was set in 1996 – and would not be an equivalent sum of money today. Nonetheless, the State Department plans to revoke passports for those who owe that amount today.

Though the State Department is claiming that it has the interests of children and families at heart, its motive, like in the Clinton administration, is welfare cuts and punishing those who live in poverty. The “Big Beautiful Bill” Act, signed by Trump in July 2025, cut approximately $187 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also referred to as food stamps. These expanded work requirements, reduced benefits, and limited overall eligibility for assistance. Some 16 million children rely on SNAP. As of January, over 3.5 million people have lost SNAP assistance.

The same “Big Beautiful Bill” also made drastic cuts to Medicaid, threatening to force hundreds of hospitals across the country to cut services if not shut down entirely. This would harm low-income and disabled people in particular.

The Trump administration is also working to slash benefits for hundreds of thousands of recipients of Supplemental Security Income, people who have disabilities including dementia and Down Syndrome, and whose families rely on food stamps.

The administration is considering billions of dollars in additional health care cuts, and revoking health care coverage from hundreds of thousands more people.

This latest maneuver to revoke passports is part of a package that cuts welfare and punishes those already struggling with poverty. And it comes at the same time as the administration is working to control who can access the full rights and privileges of being an American.