My room mate told me that there is a federal law that states if you have not paid child support in 10yrs, that they can not make you pay a dime even if there is a court order.
Is this true? Will I still be able to collect the court ordered amount if he has Never paid a dime?

I don't think that was the correct information, because if so, why are dead beat dads being tracked down by multiple means to pay. It must take a long time to catch one, and then when they are caught, they have to pay.

Not it is not true at all, first there are no real federal laws in regard to child support.

There can be statue of limitation by state law as to how far back can be collected. Now take this in reverse, if the one parent has abandoned the child, and not paid for a number of years, the other parent can use this to have any and all rights of the other person revolked.

But no, they can still collect. As noted by other posters, there would not be dead beat dads setting in jail today if they could merely get away with it by not payinf for a number of years.

Tickle and Fr. Chuck are right - there is no federal law. I have known women who have gotten back child support, going back 15+ years. So you pursue the child support. Good luck to you.

He has been breaking the law for 10yrs

There is no statutory limit on being a dead beat dad:)