Congress sent a bill to the White House on Thursday that would extend 30 temporary federal bankruptcy judgeships for another five years, but Democrats fear an amendment attached to it could make it tougher to extend them again, the Legal Times reported on Friday. The bill, passed unanimously on Thursday, reauthorizes bankruptcy judgeships in 14 states and Puerto Rico that had already expired. Without the legislation, those districts would have lost a judgeship anytime a judge retired or left the bench for any reason, something that had already happened in two districts, including the spot for now-retired Bankruptcy Judge Arthur Gonzalez in the U.S. District for the Southern District of New York. In order to secure passage for the bill, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) required an amendment that says the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts would have to issue a report on the need for bankruptcy judges before the judgeships could be extended again.
