President Joe Biden on Saturday signed the “COVID-19 Bankruptcy Relief Extension Act” into law to extend provisions providing financially distressed consumers and small businesses greater access to bankruptcy relief. The legislation will extend personal and small business bankruptcy relief provisions that were part of last year's CARES Act through March 27, 2022. Some of the key provisions of last year's relief packages were the increased debt limit to $7.5 million for small business debtors electing to file under subchapter V and allowing individuals to seek COVID-19–related hardship modifications, among other changes. With the CARES Act bankruptcy provisions originally due to sunset on March 27, the House of Representatives on Friday afternoon passed the Senate-amended version of H.R. 1651, the “COVID-19 Bankruptcy Relief Extension Act of 2021,” which passed by unanimous consent in the Senate on Wednesday. The Senate struck a provision from the original bill that would have extended the bankruptcy provisions of December's “Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021” (CAA) that are due to sunset on December 27.
