(http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cse/pol/AT/at-00-03.htm)
The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA), (Pub. L. 104-193), added a title IV-D State plan requirement under which the State plan must provide that on or after October 1, 1998, the State agency will operate a State disbursement unit (SDU). Section 312(d) of PRWORA allowed States which, as of the enactment of PRWORA, processed child support payments through local clerks of court, until October 1, 1999, to establish an SDU. States that fail to have such units in place by the statutory deadlines face State plan disapproval and loss of all Federal child support funding for the State.