Pete Sessions: “I thank Senator Kennedy. I know we worked hard on this bill to gain his support. Basically, the language that is in the…”

“I thank Senator Kennedy. I know we worked hard on this bill to gain his support. Basically, the language that is in the bill now has been modified to deal with a number of the concerns he raised. The Department of Justice, under the Clinton administration, said: A debtor should not be able to shield abundant resources from creditors, including Federal, State, and local governments, in the form of retirement savings. What is ``abundant resources''? We say, over $1 million. I do not think that is too much to allow somebody to keep when they are not paying their debts. From the Securities and Exchange Commission: We have seen insider traders, who do their trading through IRAs, and fraud participants stash their profits in IRAs. The State law exemptions have not defeated our Federal statutory claims to date, but a new Federal exemption-- Which we could be doing here-- could do so. I am concerned about the grave potential for abuse that the exemption for all retirement assets from bankruptcy estate poses. We have asked--and the Senator from Massachusetts and others voted for an amendment I sponsored--to limit homesteads to $100,000 as the amount you could put in your homestead and not pay your debtors. Yet there is an objection for some reason to saying you can't maintain more than $1 million in your IRA and not pay your debts. This is a reasonable cap. It will not hurt people.…”