To amend title 49, United States Code, to preserve nonstop air service to and from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport for certain communities in case of airline bankruptcy. (Introduced in Senate)
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to exclude from gross income gain on the sale of a family farming business to a family member.
To amend title 11, United States Code, and for other purposes.
To amend title 11, United States Code, and for other purposes.
To amend title 28, United States Code, to divide New Jersey into 2 judicial districts. (Introduced in Senate)
To amend title 11, United States Code, and for other purposes.
To amend title 11, United States Code, and for other purposes.
To amend title 11, United States Code, and for other purposes.
Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act OF 2001 -- (House of Representatives - January 31, 2001)
BANKRUPTCY ABUSE PREVENTION AND CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT OF 2001 --
(House of Representatives - January 31, 2001)
[Page: H133] GPO's PDF---
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of
the House, the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. GEKAS) is
recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. GEKAS. Mr. Speaker, the purpose of the special
order to which I am attached today is to announce the introduction of
the new bankruptcy reform act that we hope will be enacted into law
during this current session and swiftly to arrive at the President's
desk for signature. We are naming the new effort the Bankruptcy Abuse
Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2001, and we have over 50
cosponsors already even at the early stages of this session to help us
shepherd through much-needed bankruptcy
reform.
Mr. Speaker, my colleagues will recall that in the
waning days of the last session, the House by voice vote and the Senate
by an overwhelming vote of 70 to 28 approved the bankruptcy bill of the
last term only to have it vetoed by President Clinton in the last days
of the congressional session during the year 2000. So we have to start
all over again.
In starting all over again, Mr. Speaker, we are
adopting as the starting vehicle about 99 and 44/100 percent of the bill
that was approved in the last days of the last session by both the House
and the Senate, which was of course veto-proof. In the previous House
vote, there were 315 votes, well over the veto-proof level, and in the
Senate it was 70 over something which also allows for veto override.
Happily, we may not require a veto-proof majority in this current
session because we believe
that bankruptcy reform could be part and parcel of President Bush's
overall plan to meet the unstable economy head on to prevent some of the
worst consequences of an economic downturn. It fits in perfectly.
Two main themes are part of the new bankruptcy
reform effort to which I allude. These same two themes guided our
actions from the very beginning. The first theme, and the most important
one, is that it is tailored to make certain that anyone who is so
overwhelmed by debt, so swamped by the inability to pay one's
obligations that that individual after a good close look at his
circumstances would be entitled to a fresh start, to be discharged in
bankruptcy, to be free of the debts that so overwhelmed
him. That is a salient feature of this bankruptcy reform bill and the
ones that we were able to get these favorable votes to accomplish in the
last two sessions.
So we never lose sight of, nor will we ever lose
sight of, the real purpose of bankruptcy reform or any bankruptcy
legislation to allow an American citizen the right to gain a fresh start
after finding himself incapable of meeting his obligations. But the
other tandem theme that is also part of what we have been doing for the
last 3 years, and which will be an important feature of the new bill,
will be that certain provisions will be put into place which will make
certain that those people who
have an ability to repay some of their debts will be compelled to do so,
so that instead of a Chapter 7 filing which will give that automatic
almost-fresh start, we will be able to shepherd some of the debtors into
Chapter 13 and propose a plan and adopt a plan by which they could over
a period of time repay some of the debt out of their then-current
earnings.
[Page: H134] GPO's PDF
This is a well-balanced concept which we are
presenting to the American people and to the Congress so that we can
help join in the fight to make sure that our economy remains stable
throughout the ensuing several years and into the next decade.
Some of the contentious features that we found
occurred on the floor of the House and in committee throughout the last
3 years have been so well settled now and are part and parcel of the new
proposal that we believe that only a modicum of new hearings will be
needed either in the Senate or in the House for final resolution of the
final wording that will go into the bankruptcy reform bill to which we
refer. We had some 13 hearings within a year to determine what was out
there in the business
world and in the consumer world that was important enough for us to note
and to provide language to accommodate.
Mr. Speaker, I am asking for cosponsorship.
I am proud to introduce H.R. 333, the Bankruptcy
Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2001, today together
with original cosponsors from both sides of the aisle.
This bill is identical to the conference report
that accompanied H.R. 2415, the Gekas-Grassley Bankruptcy Reform Act of
2000, which passed the House by voice vote last October and passed the
Senate with a veto-proof vote of 70 to 28 less than 2 months ago. The
only revisions consist of a title change and the deletion of a provision
that has already become law.
This bill is a further perfection of its
predecessor, H.R. 833, the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1999, which I
introduced on February 24, 1999. With more than 100 cosponsors, H.R. 833
had overwhelming bipartisan support in the House as further evidenced by
a vote on final passage of 313 to 108.
The bill I am introducing today consists of a
comprehensive package of reforms pertaining to consumer and business
bankruptcy law. It also includes provisions regarding the treatment of
tax claims, enhanced data collection, and international insolvencies.
This bill responds to several developments
affecting bankruptcy law and practice. Based on data released by the
Administrative Office of the United States Courts, bankruptcy filings
have increased exponentially. Between 1994 and 1998, the number of filed
bankruptcy cases grew by more than 72 percent. In 1998, bankruptcy
filings, according to the Administrative Office, reached an ``all-time
high'' of more than 1.4 million cases. Paradoxically, however, this
dramatic increase in bankruptcy filing
rates occurred during a period when the economy continued to be robust,
with relatively low unemployment and high consumer confidence.
Coupled with this development was the release of a
study that estimated financial losses in 1997 resulting from these
bankruptcy filings exceeded $44 billion, a loss equal to more than $400
per household. This study projected that even if the growth rate in
personal bankruptcies slowed to only 15 percent over the next 3 years,
the American economy would have to absorb a cumulative cost of more than
$220 billion.
The Judiciary Committee began its consideration of
comprehensive bankruptcy reform early in the 105th Congress. On April
16, 1997, the Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law
conducted a hearing on the operation of the bankruptcy system that was
combined with a status report from the National Bankruptcy Review
Commission. This was the first of 13 hearings that the subcommittee held
on the subject of bankruptcy reform over the ensuring 2 years. Eight of
these hearings were devoted solely
to consideration of H.R. 833 and its predecessor, H.R. 3150, the
Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1998. Over the course of these hearings, more
than 120 witnesses, representing nearly every major constituency in the
bankruptcy community, testified. With regard to H.R. 833 alone,
testimony was received from 69 witnesses, representing 23 organizations,
with additional material submitted by other individuals and groups.
The heart of the bill's consumer bankruptcy reforms
is the implementation of a mechanism to ensure that consumer debtors
repay their creditors the maximum that they can afford. The needs-based
formula articulates objective criteria so that debtors and their counsel
can self-evaluate their eligibility for relief under chapter 7 (a form
of bankruptcy relief where the debtor generally receives a discharge of
his
or her personal liability for most unsecured
debts). These reforms are not intended to affect consumer debtors
lacking the ability to repay their debts and deserving of an expeditious
fresh start.
The bill's debtor protections include significant
new credit card disclosure specifications and the requirement that
billing statements and other related materials contain explanatory
statements with regard to introductory interest rates and minimum
payments. These additional disclosures will give debtors important
information to enable them to better manage their financial affairs so
that they can avoid fiscal disaster.
Important reforms intended to help debtors
understand their rights and obligations with respect to reaffirmation
agreements are also included in the legislation. To enforce these
protections, the bill requires the Attorney General to designate a U.S.
attorney for each judicial district and a FBI agent for each field
office to have primary responsibility regarding abusive reaffirmation
practices, among other responsibilities.
In addition, the legislation substantially expands
a debtor's ability to exempt certain tax-qualified retirement accounts
and pensions. It also creates a new provision that allows a consumer
debtor to exempt certain education IRA and state tuition plans for his
or her child's postsecondary education from the claims of creditors.
Most importantly, the legislation's credit
counseling provisions will give consumers in financial distress an
opportunity to learn about the consequences of bankruptcy--which can be
very devastating to their credit rating, among other matters--and about
alternatives to bankruptcy, as well as how to manage their finances, so
that they can avoid future financial difficulties.
Other debtor protections include heightened
requirements for those professionals and others who assist consumer
debtors in connection with their bankruptcy cases, expanded notice
requirements for consumers with regard to alternatives to bankruptcy
relief, and the institution of a pilot program to study the
effectiveness of consumer financial education for debtors. The
legislation also addresses a problem under the current law with respect
to those individuals who are precluded from obtaining
bankruptcy relief because they simply cannot afford to pay the requisite
bankruptcy filing fees and related charges. Under the legislation, these
fees and charges may be waived in appropriate cases.
With regard to business bankruptcy reform, the bill
addresses the special problems that small business cases present by
instituting a variety of performance criteria and enforcement mechanisms
to identify and weed out those debtors who are unable to reorganize. It
also requires more active supervision of these cases by United States
Trustees and the bankruptcy courts. The bill includes provisions dealing
with business bankruptcy cases, in general, and family farmer
bankruptcies, in particular.
It also clarifies the treatment of certain financial contracts under the
banking laws as well as under the Bankruptcy Code. The bill responds to
the special needs of family farmers by making chapter 12 of the
Bankruptcy Code--a form of bankruptcy relief available only to eligible
family farmers--permanent.
The small business and single asset real estate
provisions of the bill are largely derived from consensus
recommendations of the National Bankruptcy Review Commission. Many of
these recommendations received broad support from those in the
bankruptcy community, including various bankruptcy judges, creditor
groups, and the Executive Office for United States Trustees.
The bill, in addition, contains several provisions
having general
impact with respect to bankruptcy law and practice.
These include a provision permitting certain appeals from final
bankruptcy court decisions to be heard directly by the court of appeals
for the appropriate circuit. Another general provision of the bill
requires the Executive Office for United States Trustees to compile
various statistics regarding chapter 7, 11, and 13 cases, to make these
data available to the public, and to report annually to Congress on the
data collected.
It is also important to note that the legislation
includes a plethora of provisions intended to protect the interests of
women and children. For example, the legislation--
Gives domestic support obligations the highest
entitlement to payment in bankruptcy cases where there are assets
available to pay the claims of creditors. Current law only accords a
seventh level payment priority to these claims.
Establishes a uniform and expanded definition of
the term ``domestic support obligation'' to better protext the rights of
women and children with support claims and to reduce litigation.
Prevents deadbeat parents from enjoying the
benefits of bankruptcy relief without having first satisfied their
spousal and child support obligations.
Ensures that bankruptcy cannot be used by deadbeat
parents to interfere with the enforcement efforts of federal, state and
local authorities with respect to overdue child support obligations.
Ensures that bankruptcy cannot be used by deadbeat
parents to interfere with the enforcement efforts of federal, state and
local authorities with respect to overdue child support obligations.
[Page: H135] GPO's PDF
Does not allow deadbeat parents to discharge other
obligations relating to divorce or separation agreements.
Requries those who are responsible for the
administration of bankruptcy cases to provide important information and
notices to their holders of spousal or child support claims as well as
to state child support agencies.
Many professionals and organizations responsible
for federal child support enforcement programs such as the National
District Attorneys Association, the National Association of Attorneys
General, and the National Child Support Enforcement Association (which
represents more than 60,000 child support professionals across America)
have enthusiastically expressed their support for these important
reforms.
I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 333, the
Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2001.
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To amend title 11, United States Code, and for other purposes.