SENATE DEMOCRATS TO BATTLE ANTI-CONSUMER HOUSE BANKRUPTCY BILL MOVE

January 26, 2004

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Several Senate Democrats plan to fight House leaders’ efforts to move a controversial, House-passed bankruptcy bill to conference without a prior Senate floor vote on the measure, Senate Democratic sources said on Friday, reported CongressDaily.

“Senate Democrats would insist on the right to offer [floor] amendments to improve the bill,” said a spokesman for Senate Judiciary ranking member Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.). “This is not going to work. We’re not going to give up our rights.” House leaders plan to insert the text of the bipartisan “Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act,” which the House approved last March on a 315-113 vote, into a noncontroversial, Senate-passed bill authorizing a six-month extension for chapter 12 of the Bankruptcy Code, which provides bankruptcy relief to family farmers.

The House is scheduled to vote on the combined measure on Wednesday. If the House approves the legislation, House leaders would then send it to the Senate and request a conference. “We need to get this thing done,” a Hastert’s spokesman said, noting that the Senate has not taken up the House-passed bankruptcy bill. He also pointed out that a similar measure came close to enactment during the 107th Congress, but “couldn’t get to the final finish line.” The House had rejected the conference report on that previous bankruptcy bill, because it included controversial language that would have prevented abortion protesters from filing for bankruptcy to avoid paying fines for disruptive activity at clinics. The current House-passed bankruptcy bill does not include that language, which was based on an amendment by Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.).

But Schumer “continues to believe his amendment is an important part of bankruptcy reform,” a Schumer spokesman said, reported the newswire.

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