Louise Slaughter: “I offered with my colleague, the distinguished ranking member of the Judiciary Committee (Mr. Conyers), an amendment in…”

“I offered with my colleague, the distinguished ranking member of the Judiciary Committee (Mr. Conyers), an amendment in the Rules Committee that would have specified that creditors would not be able to collect the money owed them by a debtor, if that action would prevent the debtor from making family payments, like alimony and child support. Our amendment was not made in order. However, that does not mean I will remain silent on this issue. In 1994, I introduced the Spousal Equity in Bankruptcy Amendments to give priority to child and spousal support payments in bankruptcy proceedings, so that debtors' obligations to their children could not be discharged. That legislation became law as part of the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1994. Due to these and other child support enforcement reforms, child support collections have increased by 123 percent since 1992. But we have further to go, as American children in fiscal year 1999 were still owed $76.9 billion in child support. The supporters of this bill argue that since the bill creates a new priority in bankruptcy proceedings for child support and alimony payments, it provides far greater protections from bankruptcy for such payments than current law. They are wrong. Do not just take my word for it.…”