[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 13 (Monday, February 14, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E134-E135]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           BANKRUPTCY REFORM

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                           HON. DOUG BEREUTER

                              of nebraska

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, February 14, 2000

  Mr. BEREUTER. Mr. Speaker, this Member highly commends and submits 
for the Record a February 6, 2000, editorial from the Omaha World 
Herald regarding the bankruptcy bill recently passed by the Senate. The 
editorial highlights concerns regarding the numerous extraneous 
provisions added to the bankruptcy legislation during consideration by 
the Senate. The conference committee should eliminate the unrelated 
provisions and report a clean bankruptcy bill for final approval by the 
House and Senate.

              [From the Omaha World Herald, Feb. 6, 2000]

                     Bankruptcy Bill Is Overloaded

       A bankruptcy reform bill passed by the U.S. Senate has many 
     of the desirable features of legislation passed by the House 
     last year. Unfortunately, it also carries unrelated 
     provisions that should be stripped away.
       The two versions of the measure are similar in essential 
     ways. The idea is to make it harder for people with higher 
     incomes to walk away from debt following bankruptcy. People 
     with the ability to repay some of their debt would be 
     required to do so.
       Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, is chief sponsor of the 
     Senate bill. The Clinton administration has said it opposes 
     the measure because it is too stringent.
       Both the Senate and House versions would limit repeat 
     bankruptcy filings and make child support the highest 
     priority when debt repayment is ordered.
       The Senate bill contains a provision to prevent violent 
     abortion-clinic demonstrators from using bankruptcy to escape 
     paying

[[Page E135]]

     fines and damages. That has occurred; Operation Rescue's 
     Randall Terry filed for bankruptcy after a court ordered him 
     to pay $1.6 million.
       The legislation contains provisions that would give people 
     more information about the practices of credit card 
     companies, which bear some responsibility for the increase in 
     bankruptcies because of their bombardment of consumers with 
     offers of easy credit. For instance, companies offering a 
     low, ``teaser'' interest rate would have to say what the 
     regular interest rate would be and when it would kick in.
       The companies would also have to disclose how many months 
     it would take a person to pay off his credit-card debt if 
     only minimum payments are made. It can be a startlingly long 
     time, because even as the debt is paid, interest continues to 
     accrue.
       But senators tacked on quite a list of unrelated matters 
     that could cause problems. The minimum wage, for example, 
     would rise over three years from $5.15 to $6.15, according to 
     a provision of the bill. The idea is opposed by Democrats and 
     the Clinton administration who want the rise to occur over 13 
     months.
       The measure would give billions of dollars in tax 
     preferences to small business. And it would tighten the 
     penalties for selling illegal drugs to minors, increase the 
     penalty for selling powder cocaine to more closely match the 
     sentence for selling crack and increase the penalty for the 
     makers of methamphetamine.
       Exactly why the minimum wage, powder cocaine and tax breaks 
     were tacked onto a bankruptcy bill is unclear. The House-
     Senate conference committee could agree to separate those 
     provisions so they can be voted on separately by the two 
     houses. They should do so. Whatever the merits of the 
     additions, they don't belong in the bankruptcy measure.
       The bill, stripped of its irrelevant features, could emerge 
     from the conference committee as a sound reform of a system 
     that needs it. President Clinton might find it hard to veto a 
     good bill in an election year.

     

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