HOUSE RULES COMMITTEE APPROVES LEGISLATIVE “SLEIGHT OF HAND” TO JAM ANTI-CONSUMER BANKRUPTCY BILL DOWN SENATE’S THROAT

January 28, 2004

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The House Rules Committee voted yesterday to allow House leaders to attach the anti-consumer, House-passed bankruptcy bill to a noncontroversial, Senate-passed “family farmers” bankruptcy bill scheduled today for floor debate.

The rule allows the combined legislation to be offered as a substitute for the Senate bill, which authorizes a six-month extension of chapter 12, the Bankruptcy Code provision that gives relief to family farmers. The rule also waives all points of order on the substitute.

Should the full House approve the leadership move today, it could lead to a House-Senate conference on the larger bankruptcy reform bill (H.R. 975), which has been stalled in the Senate. Such a conference would limit the right of Senate Democrats to offer amendments to H.R. 975, and thus several Senators are expected to fight the procedural move and insist on the regular order.

Editor’s note: If this stategy works, and the bankruptcy “reform” bill becomes law, the consumer credit industry will have the bankruptcy law that they want. It will be far more difficult and expensive to file bankruptcy; some people may not be able to file at all, or may find that it wouldn’t help them to file. Presently, there is a 180 day delayed effective date, once the President would sign the bill into law.

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