SENATE TO BEGIN WORK OF RECONCILING REFORM BILLS

July 25, 2001

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The House and Senate have already passed different versions of a Bankruptcy Reform Act, which makes it much more difficult for consumers to file bankruptcy. The next step in this Act becoming law, is for House and Senate ‘conferees’ to meet and resolve the differences in the legislation.

According to the American Bankruptcy Institute, House Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) yesterday in a letter asked Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) to allow their aides to begin working together on the bankruptcy legislation even though the House has yet to name its conferees to the conference committee, CongressDaily reported. “To facilitate this process of reconciliation, I propose that the staff of our respective committees forthwith begin the process of informally resolving these differences to the extent they can as soon as possible,” Sensenbrenner wrote. “I also suggest that the staff use this time productively to identify and correct technical drafting errors.” A spokesman for House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) yesterday said he had “no idea” when House conferees might be appointed and did not comment on Sensenbrenner’s request to Leahy. You can read the Sensenbrenner letter by pointing your browser to http://www.abiworld.org/research/sensletter.html.

When the Senate approved its appointees last week to serve on a House-Senate bankruptcy reform conference committee, some bankruptcy bill supporters expressed disappointment with the number of Senate conferees, saying that the large number would compound an already complicated conference. The House has yet to name its own conferees, but is expected to appoint a comparable number to the Senate’s 13 members.

“It’s never helpful when you have a lot of people, especially in [a situation where] the [House and Senate] bills are already similar,” one observer said. However, the source suggested that the number of conferees by itself is not apt to make much of a difference, given that the conference committee is not expected to meet in a formal setting more than once, or vote on amendments. The larger conference may be acceptable to bill supporters because the larger number includes Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.), who as one of the bill’s stronger supporters may blunt Democratic efforts to rewrite significant portions of the bill. Biden’s home state serves as headquarters to MBNA Corp., the world’s largest independent credit card issuer and a major political contributor. Biden’s presence is expected to prove pivotal in that he is not apt to side with Democratic attempts to change the bill in a way that could alienate business. Biden reacted strongly to a recent Washington Post editorial which implied his presence guaranteed an industry-tilted bill. You can read his comments by pointing your browser to http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/opinion/A17724-2001Jul18.html.