Relating to orders for child support including requests for information regarding digital financial accounts, and providing penalties

Description

House File 2625 relates to orders for child support, including requests for information regarding digital financial accounts. The Bill grants child support agencies the authority to subpoena records from digital financial accounts when they are deemed relevant to establishing, modifying, or enforcing a child support obligation. The Bill provides that a parent or putative father who fails to comply with a subpoena for records concerning digital financial accounts, without good cause, commits a Class D felony.

Background

A digital financial account is defined as an online account that stores, transfers, or receives moneys digitally. Apart from any law making the information confidential, child support services or a child support agency may subpoena relevant account records in establishing, modifying, or enforcing a support obligation to include all of the following:

• Identifying information
• Transaction histories
• Deposits or withdrawal records
• Employment-related and contractor payments
• Other income

A Class D felony is punishable by confinement for no more than five years and a fine of at least $1,025 but not more than $10,245.

Assumptions

• The following will not change over the projection period: charge, conviction, and sentencing patterns and trends; prisoner length of stay (LOS); revocation rates; plea bargaining; and other criminal justice system policies and practices.
• County jail data is unavailable. For purposes of this analysis, the marginal cost for county jails is assumed to be $50 per day.
• Conviction data reflects the total number of convictions in adult court, which may include multiple convictions per individual. Not all convictions lead to incarceration, and there may be a delay between conviction and prison admission, which can contribute to differences in totals.
• A six-month delay is assumed from the effective date of the Bill to the date the first offender will enter the correctional system.
• Offender-based convictions are a count of individuals convicted of the same offense. Each offender is counted only once per Iowa Code section, regardless of the number of individual convictions.
• Admissions are a count of individuals newly admitted to the Department of Corrections (DOC) for supervision during a selected time period, based on the most serious offense committed.
• A Class D felony is expected to cost an average of $746.51 in court personnel time.

Correctional Impact

The correctional impact cannot be determined because the number of new convictions under the Bill is unknown. Figure 1 shows estimates for sentencing to State prison, parole, probation, or Community-Based Corrections (CBC) residential facilities; LOS in months under those supervisions; and supervision marginal costs per day for a Class D felony. Figure 1 — Sentencing Estimates and Length of Stay (LOS) in Months

Conviction Offense Class

Percent

Ordered to

State

Prison

FY 2025 Avg

LOS in

Prison (All Releases)

Marginal

Cost Per

Day

Prison

Percent

Ordered to

Probation

FY 2025

Field Avg

LOS on

Probation

Avg Cost

Per Day

Probation

Marginal

Cost Per

Day CBC

Marginal

Cost Per

Day Jail

FY 2025

Field Avg

LOS on

Parole

Marginal

Cost Per

Day Parole

D Felony Non-Persons 84.2% 12.5 $23.07 69.4% 41.4 $8.00 $16.35 $50.00 15.5 $8.00 Refer to the Legislative Services Agency (LSA) memo addressed to the General Assembly, Cost Estimates Used for Correctional Impact Statements, dated January 12, 2026, for information related to the correctional system.

Minority Impact

House File 2625 creates a new criminal offense. As a result, the minority impact cannot be estimated due to a lack of existing data. Refer to the LSA memo addressed to the General Assembly, Minority Impact Statements, dated January 12, 2026, for information related to minorities in the criminal justice system.

Fiscal Impact

The fiscal impact cannot be estimated because the number of new convictions under the Bill is unknown. However, the average State cost of a Class D felony is between $13,000 and $18,100. This includes operating costs incurred by the Judicial Branch, the Indigent Defense Fund, and the DOC. The cost would be incurred across multiple fiscal years for prison and parole supervision.

Sources

• Department of Corrections
• Division of Data, Planning, and Improvement (DPI), Department of Management (DOM)
• Judicial Branch