On July 15, the House Veterans’ Affairs Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity approved, by voice vote, H.R. 4469, a bill to protect child custody arrangements for parents in the armed forces and deployed in support of military contingency operations, as part of an en bloc package of bills.
Sponsored by Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH), the measure would amend the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (P.L. 108-189) to prohibit courts from changing child custody arrangements in place at the time the parent is deployed, unless the court determines that a change is in the “best interest of the child.” Any such modifications would be temporary; once the service member has returned from deployment, the original custody arrangement would be reinstated, except in instances where the court determines that doing so would be not be in the “best interest of the child.”
The measure also would prohibit courts from considering the parent’s absence due to deployment in determining the “best interest of the child.”