[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 125 (Friday, September 18, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10580-S10581]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          THE BANKRUPTCY BILL

  Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, we have spent most of the morning 
talking primarily about the bankruptcy bill that will be before us. We 
have done a lot of work on that bill, and there are some complicated 
and difficult issues involved. People have raised many objections and 
questions. The managers have done an outstanding job in trying to 
confront those objections and questions and tried to modify the bill, 
often on the spur of the moment, to deal with the potential objections. 
I have supported that. I have supported the managers' amendment that 
deals with many of these things. But there are a number of issues that 
still perhaps need more evaluation.
  I think one of the things we need to discuss is a mandate that we 
have now in the bill which tells the credit card companies a lot of new 
information that they must provide on their financial statements, 
including how many months a person would need to pay at the minimum 
payment before the credit card debt would be fully paid off. That may 
be a good idea, but I wonder, Have we actually asked these private 
companies how difficult that is going to be for them? Will we get the 
kind of benefit from it that we hope to get? Will it be worth the 
additional numbers that are required to be put on the form? Have was 
asked them how much will it cost? That cost, of course, will ultimately 
be passed on to the consumers.
  Some of those financial statements have become so complicated that 
you hardly know how to look at them when you get them. It may be that 
this is the kind of amendment we want to have. But I did want to 
suggest that, regarding this requirement that we have added without any 
hearings having taken place, we might need to ask the conferees to look 
at it. There may be a number of other issues of like note that need to 
be looked at in conference as well.
  Fundamentally, I believe the managers' amendment is a healthy thing,

[[Page S10581]]

and I certainly support Senator Grassley in his efforts to move this 
bill forward.

                          ____________________