[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 150 (Thursday, December 7, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11729-S11730]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      BANKRUPTCY REFORM ACT OF 2000--CONFERENCE REPORT--Continued

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Minnesota.
  Mr. WELLSTONE. Mr. President, how much time do I have remaining?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Minnesota has 2 minutes 
remaining.
  Mr. WELLSTONE. Mr. President, responding to my friend from Iowa, the 
President has called Senators and for good reason: This is a piece of 
legislation that has very little balance.
  I gave the example again of LTV workers in the iron range of 
Minnesota which is going to shut down in February. One month later, 
there could be

[[Page S11730]]

an illness in a family, a medical bill, the worker no longer has a job 
and cannot pay the mortgage.
  Under this piece of legislation, what would be the income that is 
calculated? Would it be the income of this family with the head of the 
household unemployed? No. Under this bill, in order to see whether this 
family could file under chapter 7, you would look over the past 6 
months and average out the income all the months he or she was working. 
But they do not have a job.
  Most of the people file for chapter 7 because of a major medical 
bill. It is 50 percent. Only about 3 percent game this system.
  Now we have a piece of legislation that does not ask the credit card 
companies to be accountable, does not do anything about their egregious 
practices, targets the most vulnerable people, and has very little 
balance. This piece of legislation should be defeated. That is why the 
President is opposed to it. That is why labor, civil rights, women, 
children, consumer organizations, all oppose this piece of legislation. 
I say to my colleagues, it is too harsh. It is without balance. I know 
there is a powerful economic constituency behind it, but I hope you 
will vote against it.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Mexico.
  Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I rise to congratulate all the Senators 
who have been working on this issue and, in particular, the chairman 
who is standing here, Senator Grassley, and has been here many times.
  Today, in an extended session, we will finally reform the bankruptcy 
laws of America. They are very important because credit in America, be 
it from banks, from individual lenders, wherever, is really the 
heartbeat of what makes us tick and permits us to give our citizens 
material means. Without credit, things do not work in America.
  Every now and then, we have to fix the bankruptcy laws so they work 
in behalf of not only the debtors but the creditors of America. That is 
what we are doing here. I think it will pass overwhelmingly.
  My thanks to those who have worked so hard on it. I cannot claim to 
be one of them.
  Again, Senator Chuck Grassley has great persistence, and this is a 
tribute to him and a good start to his chairmanship of the Finance 
Committee.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. GRASSLEY. I ask for the yeas and nays.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
  There appears to be a sufficient second.
  The hour of 3:45 p.m. having arrived, the question is on agreeing to 
the conference report to accompany H.R. 2415. The clerk will call the 
roll.
  The legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. FITZGERALD (when his name was called). Present.
  Mr. REID. I announce that the Senator from Louisiana (Ms. Landrieu) 
is necessarily absent.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Crapo). Are there any other Senators in 
the Chamber desiring to vote?
  The result was announced--yeas 70, nays 28, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 297 Leg.]

                                YEAS--70

     Abraham
     Allard
     Ashcroft
     Bayh
     Bennett
     Biden
     Bingaman
     Bond
     Breaux
     Brownback
     Bryan
     Bunning
     Burns
     Byrd
     Campbell
     Chafee, L.
     Cleland
     Cochran
     Collins
     Conrad
     Craig
     Crapo
     DeWine
     Domenici
     Dorgan
     Enzi
     Frist
     Gorton
     Graham
     Gramm
     Grams
     Grassley
     Gregg
     Hagel
     Hatch
     Helms
     Hollings
     Hutchinson
     Hutchison
     Inhofe
     Jeffords
     Johnson
     Kerrey
     Kyl
     Lincoln
     Lott
     Lugar
     Mack
     McCain
     McConnell
     Miller
     Murkowski
     Nickles
     Robb
     Roberts
     Roth
     Santorum
     Sessions
     Shelby
     Smith (NH)
     Smith (OR)
     Snowe
     Specter
     Stevens
     Thomas
     Thompson
     Thurmond
     Torricelli
     Voinovich
     Warner

                                NAYS--28

     Akaka
     Baucus
     Boxer
     Daschle
     Dodd
     Durbin
     Edwards
     Feingold
     Feinstein
     Harkin
     Inouye
     Kennedy
     Kerry
     Kohl
     Lautenberg
     Leahy
     Levin
     Lieberman
     Mikulski
     Moynihan
     Murray
     Reed
     Reid
     Rockefeller
     Sarbanes
     Schumer
     Wellstone
     Wyden

                        ANSWERED ``PRESENT''--1

       
     Fitzgerald
       

                             NOT VOTING--1

       
     Landrieu
       
  The conference report was agreed to.
  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.
  Mr. LOTT. I move to lay that motion on the table.
  The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.
  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I want to thank all of the people who 
helped get this bill passed.
  Senator Hatch, Senator Sessions, Senator Torricelli, and Senator 
Biden have all been very helpful. I thank them publicly for their hard 
work. I even want to thank Senator Leahy. I also want to thank the 
staff who have been helpful: Makan Delrahim and Renee Augustine of 
Senator Hatch's staff; Ed Haden and Brad Harris of Senator Session's 
staff; Jennifer Leach of Senator torricelli's staff; Jim Greene of 
Senator Biden's staff; Kolan Davis and John McMickle of my staff. I 
also want to thank Ed Pagan and Bruce Cohen of Senator Leahy's staff.
  I want to emphasize the great amount of work and expertise toward 
this successful effort of my Counsel, John McMickle. Without his hard 
work the bill would not have been the good product and compromise it 
is.
  Mr. LEAHY. I congratulate Senator Grassley, the Chairman of the 
Administrative Oversight Subcommittee and my good friend Senator Hatch, 
the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee for their work on this measure. 
They doggedly pursued this passage here today. They showed leadership 
and we made some progress.
  I only wish we could have completed our work on this bill and 
resolved the remaining important issues in a way that I could have 
supported and the President could sign.

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