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March 7, 2005
Senate Seeks to End Bankruptcy Debate This Week
The Senate will meet today at 2 p.m. to continue its consideration of
the bankruptcy overhaul bill, with up to three hours of debate on
minimum-wage, with amendments offered by Edward Kennedy (D–Mass.)
and Rick Santorum (R–Pa.). Each requires 60 votes in order to
pass. The Schumer amendment on nondischargeability of certain debts
incurred through violation of law regarding lawful goods and services
will be debated on Tuesday morning and will be voted on at 12:15 p.m.
The Senate will then vote on cloture for the bill at 2:15 p.m. A vote of
60 is required to approve the motion.
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R–Texas) and House Judiciary
Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R–Wis.) pledged on Friday to quickly
take up the Senate bankruptcy bill in the House if the Senate version
passes “without any further substantive amendments.” A GOP
leadership aide said if the Senate passes a “clean”
bankruptcy bill next week, the House will take it up, but “not as
quick as class action,” meaning the bill would move through the
House in regular order, with the Judiciary Committee marking it up
before House leaders bring it to the floor. The House goes out on recess
from 3/19–4/3 for spring district work period.
House to Examine Administration’s Pension Proposal
The House Ways and Means Select Revenue Measures Subcommittee
tomorrow will examine the administration’s proposal to overhaul
policies governing how companies fund their single-employer pension
plans, CongressDaily reported. The administration’s
proposal was aimed at tightening the rules to prevent pensions from
getting underfunded and to improve disclosure about the status of
companies’ pension funds. Lawmakers have agreed the pension system
needs changing, but details of the administration’s proposal have
garnered mixed responses from lawmakers and the business community.
Worldcom
Four Investment Banks to Pay $100.3 Million to Settle WorldCom
Suit
Four investment banks on Friday became the latest to settle claims
stemming from a class action lawsuit brought by former shareholders of
WorldCom Inc., the Associated Press reported. Alan G. Hevesi, New York
state’s comptroller, said in a statement that he had reached an
agreement with Lehman Brothers Inc. of New York for $62.7 million. Three
other investment banks each agreed to pay $12.54 million. They are
Credit Suisse First Boston, a unit of the Zurich-based Credit Suisse
Group, Goldman, Sachs & Co. of New York and UBS Warburg LLC of
Stamford, Conn., the newswire reported.
Jury Debates Fate of WorldCom’s Ebbers
A federal jury on Friday began deliberations in the criminal fraud
trial of Bernard Ebbers, the former WorldCom Inc. CEO accused of
masterminding an $11 billion accounting scandal, Reuters reported. The
jury of seven women and five men will decide whether Ebbers approved
accounting tricks used to cover up expenses and inflate revenue at
WorldCom. Ebbers is charged with fraud, conspiracy and filing false
documents with regulators.
Troubled Airline Industry in for More Costs
The U.S. airline industry faces millions of dollars in additional
costs as federal authorities push carriers to replace the insulation on
some planes, Reuters reported. The Federal Aviation Administration in
2000 required that the insulation on certain models made by McDonnell
Douglas be replaced, following the investigation of Swissair Flight 111,
which crashed off the coast of Nova Scotia in 1998. The deadline is June
30, 2005. The deadline and the associated costs are looming over the
industry at a time when every U.S. carrier except Southwest Airlines,
JetBlue Airways and ExpressJet has been posting quarterly losses while
cutting costs drastically, the newswire reported.
Almost Half of Americans Are Making Minimum or No Payments on Their
Credit Card Balances
Almost half of Americans (45 percent) are making only minimum or no
payments on their outstanding credit card balances, up from 42 percent
who did so in 2004, according to the Cambridge Consumer Credit Index,
the group announced in a press release. Of the respondents surveyed, 37
percent paid less than half but more than minimum payments (down from 39
percent in 2004). Seventeen percent of Americans paid more than half the
balances due, down from 19 percent last year. Read the article at
href='http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/3/prweb215206.php'>www.prweb.com/releases/2005/3/prweb215206.php.
YUKOS to Appeal U.S. Case Dismissal to Higher Court
Russian oil company on Thursday filed notice that it would appeal to
a higher court to overturn a bankruptcy judge’s dismissal of its
U.S. bankruptcy case, Reuters reported. The case will now go before a
U.S. District Court Judge in Houston. No date has been set. The notice
came shortly after U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Letitia Clark reaffirmed her
ruling handed down last week to dismiss the case based on the lack of
jurisdiction of U.S. courts.
Florida’s Lawsuit Against Pension Firm Heads to State
Court
Florida’s pension board is suing Alliance, seeking to recover
the losses of the state’s pension money, plus punitive damages,
the Wall Street Journal reported. Opening statements start
tomorrow in state court in Tallahassee, Fla. The suit is part of the
many civil and criminal cases stemming from the stock-market
bubble’s aftermath. Read the full article at
href='http://www.wsj.com/'>www.wsj.com (subscription required).
Bankruptcy for Local Nevada Governments Considered
A Nevada Senate committee has been asked to decide whether local
governments that fall into debt should be allowed to file bankruptcy,
krnv.com reported. The Senate Government Affairs Committee was told a
bill letting a general improvement district file for reorganization
under federal bankruptcy laws would help solve a district's fiscal
problems. Committee members started discussing whether that authority
should be extended to all local governments, but the idea was opposed by
Carole Vilardo of the Nevada Taxpayers Association who said, “our
state’s credit rating would tank” if local governments could
file for bankruptcy. Read the full article at
href='http://www.krnv.com/Global/story.asp?s=3030606'>www.krnv.com/Global/story.asp?s=3030606.