[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 6]
[House]
[Page 8493]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     THE NEED FOR BANKRUPTCY REFORM

  (Mr. SMITH of Washington asked and was given permission to address 
the House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Speaker, today the House will vote on 
bankruptcy reform, and I rise today to urge all Members to support this 
bill. The bill ultimately is about personal responsibility. It is about 
holding people accountable for their own actions.
  Worse, the current bankruptcy situation puts us in a position where 
others are held accountable for those actions. They are the ones that 
have to bear the price of other people's choices. Worst, it basically 
spreads out from the middle class to the poorest of the poor. Those are 
the ones that have to pay more for retail items and for a variety of 
items because some people run up obligations that they either have no 
intention of meeting or do not meet.
  Also, small businesses are particularly devastated by bankruptcies. 
In many small businesses, one or two clients not paying can be the 
difference between being in business and out of business, and when they 
go bankrupt and do not pay, those small businesses suffer.
  This bill does not eliminate bankruptcy, it is out there as an 
option, but it makes changes to hold people accountable and responsible 
for their own financial decisions to make sure that, if they can pay, 
they do pay. We should not have a situation where people can declare 
bankruptcy, run out on their obligations to others, drive up costs for 
everybody else and still live a life better than 95 percent of the rest 
of the world.
  We need this bankruptcy reform bill.

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