SENATE LIKELY TO MOVE ON BANKRUPTCY CONFERENCE

July 5, 2001

Return To Archives

Now that the Senate has reached agreement on the chamber’s new organizational resolution, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) plans to offer a motion early next week to name Senate conferees, the first step toward a conference with the House on bankruptcy legislation, sources told Congress Daily, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute.

A Daschle spokeswoman said there was nothing formally scheduled, but Congress Daily sources said Daschle would offer the motion to proceed when senators return on July 9. The Senate will immediately turn to a supplemental appropriations bill.

A key question remains as to whether Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.)-a senior member of the Judiciary Committee and a staunch supporter of the legislation- will be part of the conference committee. Although not confirmed by his office, sources said Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) has proposed taking to conference only members of the Administrative Oversight and the Courts Subcommittee, which has jurisdiction over the bill. Biden does not serve on that subcommittee. Biden has been accused by critics of the bankruptcy legislation of looking out too closely for the interests of MBNA Corp., the world’s largest independent credit card issuer. MBNA is headquartered in Delaware.

Proponents of the legislation want Biden on the conference to ensure that key votes do not fall strictly along partisan lines. With a one-vote margin, Senate Democrats could effectively kill the bill.

Leahy already has indicated he would fend off attempts by the House to strip the Senate bill of language that puts a $250,000 cap on homestead exemptions and singles out claims against abortion clinic protesters for nondischargeable treatment-language that is strongly opposed by both the House and the Bush administration. House Financial Services Chairman Michael Oxley (R-Ohio) has said he would be among the conferees on bankruptcy,
although his counterpart, Senate Banking Chairman Paul Sarbanes (D-Md.), appears disinterested in getting involved on that level, reported Congress Daily.

Because of turn taking between the House and Senate on conference chairmanships, CongressDaily sources said earlier this week that House Judiciary Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) is slated to wield the gavel.

However, how quickly the conference commences depends in part on how vigorous a fight Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.) plans on waging. Wellstone, who strongly opposes the legislation, has indicated he would take at least one of the up to six filibuster opportunities as Daschle seeks to appoint conferees.