Political Quotes

“Throughout a full year now, as the Speaker knows, we have been considering bankruptcy reform. And as it turned out, the House, in a bipartisan vote, overwhelmingly approved bankruptcy reform twice, both in the original bill and in the conference report. The Senate, on its side, approved on a great bipartisan vote with only one dissenting vote, I think 97 or 98 to 1, a similar bankruptcy reform bill. The conference was never able to have the bill passed in both chambers. It succeeded only in the House. So it sort of fell by its own weight over in the Senate. An important feature of the bankruptcy reform legislation, right from the start, was an extension of chapter 12. What does that mean? Chapter 12 is devoted specifically and uniquely to the farmers of our Nation who experience unique types of financial crises almost on a monthly basis. We, through chapter 12 in the current code, accord our farmers a special set of rights and abilities to cope with their financial situation. So we had hoped that, with the total bankruptcy reform bill it seemed on a way to a successful conclusion, to also extend the benefits of chapter 12 which we did have in the bill. But if the bill fell, then chapter 12 had to fall with it. That meant that, on October 1 of this year, the authorization previously in effect for chapter 12 ended.”