Legislative Highlights Feb 2001

<h3>New Bills Introduced</h3>

<p>The following bankruptcy-related bills were introduced in the House during the first days of the 107th
Congress:

</p><ul>
<li><b>H.R. 188</b> (Smith, R-Mich.): a bill to permanently reenact chapter 12 of the Code. Chapter 12
expired on July 1. A permanent extension failed as part of the overall bill's failure to become law in
December.

</li><li><b>H.R. 11</b> (Leach, R-Iowa): a bill to revise the banking and bankruptcy laws with respect to the
termination of netting of financial services contracts, jointly referred to the Judiciary and Financial
Services committees. This legislation was included in the omnibus package in the 106th Congress and
also passed the House as a freestanding bill at the end of the session. The Senate took no action on the
bill, which is a priority of the financial services community.

</li><li><b>H.R. 61</b> (Dreier, R-Calif.): a bill to promote youth financial education, referred to the
Committee on Education.

</li><li><b>H.R. 184</b> (Slaughter, D-N.Y.): a bill to amend the Consumer Credit Protection Act to prevent
credit card issuers from taking unfair advantage of college students, referred to the Financial Services
Committee.

</li><li><b>H.R. 163</b> (Royce, R-Calif.): a bill to amend the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act to exempt
mortgage services from certain requirements of the act with respect to federally related mortgage loans
secured by a first lien, referred to the Financial Services Committee.

</li></ul>

<h4>Privacy Comments Sought</h4>

<p>The federal judiciary continues to seek comments on the privacy and security implications of providing
electronic public access to court case files, such as over the Internet. Comments may be submitted
electronically at <a href="http://www.privacy.uscourts.gov&quot; target="window2">www.privacy.uscourts.gov</a&gt;.