Pete Sessions: “Let me say, frankly, where we are on homestead. That has been an intensely debated matter for 8 years. We have reached a…”

“Let me say, frankly, where we are on homestead. That has been an intensely debated matter for 8 years. We have reached a compromise on how to handle homestead, and rather than cracking down on the abuses of those people who move to States with unlimited homesteads, we basically have agreed as a Senate that the States get to decide how much should be exempted under the bankruptcy law. In other words, each State gets to decide. States need to begin to think about what their limits are and whether they need to change them. The Senator noted that California has raised its exemption for a home. Others will probably do the same, and some have already done so. It threatens this legislation in a fundamental way if we now go in and say we are going to override the State laws about what the homestead exemption should be. I do not think we should do that. I think it could help kill this bill.”