5th try to protect child custody for troops

5th try to protect child custody for troops

By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Friday May 14, 2010 12:18:53 EDT

An Ohio congressman is hoping the fifth time is a charm in his efforts to give special child custody protection to service members.

Four times, the House of Representatives has passed legislation sponsored by Rep. Michael Turner, R-Ohio, to prevent past, present or future deployments from being used against a service member as the basis for determining or changing child custody arrangements.

Four times, Turner has run into opposition from the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Defense Department, and his legislation has been rejected.

Turner is back. On Wednesday, the military personnel subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee agreed to include his legislation in the 2011 defense authorization bill. He expects it will pass the committee, again, without any dissent and will also easily pass the House.

It remains unclear if anything has changed in the Senate or Defense Department that will end years of opposition.

Turner said his legislation is “straightforward” in trying to protect service members from losing custody of a child solely because of their military service. Fifteen states have laws that provide varying degrees of protection, he said, but there is no single standard, and nothing prevents an ex-spouse from jurisdiction-shopping to file for a change in custody in one of the states without any protections for a service member.
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5th try to protect child custody for troops