Sec. 6. 19-A MRSA §2802, sub-§21, ķE is enacted to read:

E.__Determination of the controlling child support order.

Sec. 7. 19-A MRSA §2802, sub-§22, as enacted by PL 1995, c. 694, Pt. B, §2 and affected by Pt. E, §2, is amended to read:

22. Support order. "Support order" means a judgment, decree or, order or directive, whether temporary, final or subject to modification, issued by a__tribunal for the benefit of a child, a spouse or a former spouse, that provides for monetary support, health care, arrearages or reimbursement. "Support order" may include related costs and fees, interest, income withholding, attorney's fees and other relief.

Uniform Comment

(This is Section 102 of the Uniform Act.)

The terms defined in UIFSA have undergone relatively little amendment since its original promulgation in 1992. Two new terms were added in 2001--"person" and "record," found in Subsections (14) and (15), respectively. Other definitions have been amended slightly over the years, but none as significantly as the 2001 amendments to the definition of "State" in Subsection (21).

Many crucial definitions continue to be left to local law. For example, the definitions of "child" and "child-support order" provided by Subsections (1) and (2) refer to "the age of majority" without further elaboration. The exact age at which a child becomes an adult for different purposes is a matter for the law of each State, as is the age at which a parent's duty to furnish child support terminates. Similarly, a wide variety of other terms of art are implicitly left to state law. For example, Subsection (23) refers inter alia to "health care, arrearages, or reimbursement ." All of these terms are subject to individualized definitions on a state-by-state basis.

Subsection (3) defines "duty of support" to mean the legal obligation to provide support, whether or not that duty has been the subject of an order by a tribunal. This broad definition includes both prospective and retrospective obligations to the extent they are imposed by the relevant state law.

For the limited purpose of resolving certain conflicts in the exercise of jurisdiction, Subsection (4) borrows the concept of the "home State of a child" from the UNIFORM CHILD CUSTODY JURISDICTION ACT (UCCJA) and its successor, the UNIFORM CHILD