Melvin Watt: “Mr. Chairman, in the 13 or so blocks from my residence to my office this morning I promised myself that I was going to…”

“Mr. Chairman, in the 13 or so blocks from my residence to my office this morning I promised myself that I was going to be calm and unemotional in this debate, despite the fact that I think the process in the committee was a charade and I think this is going to be a charade. At the end of the day this bill will not be amended because it is about making a political statement that our Republican leadership can get the bill that they passed last time and it can be signed. This bill is an unfortunate convergence of expediency and politics. Nobody is likely to like what I say on either side of this issue because what I perceive has happened is that the people who wanted this bill knew that politically they could not get it unless they exempted the poorest people in the country from the provisions of this bill. And for those of us who start with the position that there is abuse in the bankruptcy system and have witnessed that abuse, we know that the abuse not only exists among high-income people but the abuse exists among low-income people also.”