Jerry Nadler: “this is a simply silly provision and does not, frankly, deserve the attention it is being paid on the floor today. Why…”

“this is a simply silly provision and does not, frankly, deserve the attention it is being paid on the floor today. Why should we not waste $34 million of the taxpayers' money for no purpose at all, the gentleman from Pennsylvania asks? My answer is because it is $34 million of the taxpayers' money. There are no hearings here. Anyone who practices bankruptcy knows that in a vast number of cases it is open and shut. Everybody knows what is going on. There are no assets, very little income, no one has any desire to see the tax forms. Anyone, any creditor, the judge, anybody who wants to see the tax form, a one-sentence request suffices. All that not passing the amendment of the gentleman from North Carolina will do will be to waste $34 million of the taxpayers' money in order to pile up tax forms in court that no one will read. Sure, there are many cases where we may want to see what the assets are, what the income is, whether the bankruptcy makes sense or not, whether it meets the requirements of the law. All anyone has to do is ask, and someone will ask, and those are the complicated ones. But for those where there is no question, why require the court, as is not now required, to bury itself under a mountain of paper for no other purpose than to waste the taxpayers' money?”