BAD BANKRUPTCY BILL STILL STALLED
May 23, 2002
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The anti-consumer Bankruptcy Reform Bill remains stalled in a Congressional conference committee, following a meeting yesterday in Washington. The bill, if passed into law, would make it much more difficult for individuals to file bankruptcy, remove many of the consumer protections contained in the current bankruptcy law, and increase the expense and embarrassment of filing bankruptcy.
The difference between a “blockade” and a “peaceful protest” were the issues holding up an agreement on the bankruptcy overhaul legislation at yesterday’s bankruptcy conference committee meeting. At the conclusion of the meeting, House Judiciary Committee and Conference Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) said he believed negotiators have made progress on the final sticking point in the bankruptcy overhaul bill. He said Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) are closer to resolving their dispute over Senate-passed language that would bar violent abortion protesters from filing for bankruptcy protection to escape fines for unlawful conduct at abortion clinics.
Sensenbrenner said the key to finally resolving the dispute would be defining the specific acts that the protest-related provision would cover. Hyde insisted that protesters should be allowed to discharge their protest-related debts if they were fined for inadvertently stepping across lines designed to keep them a certain distance from an abortion clinic. “There are blockades and then there are blockades,” he said. Schumer agreed that peaceful protestors should not be barred from having their debts discharged, but said he would insist on language barring people from discharging debts related to fines levied for purposeful blockading of clinics.
Despite Sensenbrenner’s optimism on progress, after the meeting Democrats insisted that there would be no compromise on the bill. “When Henry Hyde said, ‘There are blockades and there are blockades,’ he revealed an inability to compromise,” said Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.). “I am now much more optimistic that this bill is dead.” Schumer agreed and said, “What does that mean… [the difference between] blocking and a peaceful protest? Today he [Hyde] at least admitted in public that blockading should not be dischargeable.” Sensenbrenner directed Hyde and Schumer to get together over the next two weeks to work out the language differences and he hopes to call another meeting during the week of June 10.
In a related matter, House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas) today signaled that House GOP leaders are firmly behind House Republican bankruptcy conferees, reported CongressDaily. Noting his own “deep sense of frustration” with a debate that “seems to be headed toward a stalemate, threatening the bankruptcy legislation,” Armey wrote to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) asking for his help in getting the conference “back on track.” Armey wrote, “We are down to one issue, and disappointingly, it largely concerns extraneous matters while purporting to deal with a nonexistent problem.”
Armey also expressed concern about “certain instances of vitriolic name-calling reported in the press.” Armey wrote, “The disdain and sometimes even derision expressed by some of our Senate colleagues at these good-faith efforts are disconcerting… worse yet, the media have reported statements originating from Senate sources that completely misstate the nature of the debate and the pertinent issues. I trust that you do not support such antics, and hope that you can influence your colleagues to respond differently.” Armey said there is “no rampant problem of abortion protesters using bankruptcy to escape their debts,” and said current law “already makes willful and malicious acts that cause personal injury or property damage nondischargeable.”
