Political Quotes

“I rise in support of H.R. 833, the Bankruptcy Reform Act. H.R. 833, is a common sense piece of legislation that reforms our deeply flawed bankruptcy system. Under our current bankruptcy system, we have seen an increase in bankruptcy filings by more than 400 percent since 1980. Last year alone, during booming economic times with historic lows in unemployment, more than 1.4 million Americans filed for bankruptcy. This is a 3.6 percent increase over the number of individuals filing for personal bankruptcy in 1997 and an increase of 94.7 percent over 1990 levels. Moreover, 70 percent of these 1.4 million bankruptcies were filed under Chapter 7, the most permissive and lenient form of bankruptcy. Under Chapter 7, individuals can simply erase most of their accumulated debt. In effect, the permissiveness of the current system, while allowing some consumers to escape their debts, ultimately harms all consumers by forcing industry to charge higher prices and impose tighter credit. Clearly, Mr. Chairman, something is wrong with our current bankruptcy system. Our current system makes it too easy for individuals to compile huge amounts of debt and then escape responsibility for repaying those debts. For far too many individuals, bankruptcy has become an easy and convenient way to skirt their financial obligations rather than an instrument of last resort. H.R. 833 reforms this flawed system.”