Pete Sessions: “I will confine my remarks to the other amendment we will be voting on, unless someone else wants to respond to the…”

“I will confine my remarks to the other amendment we will be voting on, unless someone else wants to respond to the Feinstein amendment. At 11 o'clock, we will also be voting on the Kennedy amendment that attempts to remove the cap of $1 million on how much a bankrupt can protect in their IRA account. I know Senator Kennedy steadfastly opposed the homestead law under the current bill and I agreed. We made substantial progress in containing the abuse of homestead that is unlimited in a few States. Right now, if you pour millions of dollars into a home, you can protect that home, you can file bankruptcy, and not pay your debtors, and keep the $2 million home. To me, that is not right, so I have supported that change. And we could not get as far as we wanted because a number of States have provisions in their constitutions that protect homesteads. We made a number of steps to curtail that abuse--real steps--but we did not go as far as I wished we could have gone. This is a very similar situation. Why should you not pay individual debtors--why should you not pay your hospital debt and other debts and be able to file bankruptcy and have $2 million in your IRA account? Can't a person live on $1 million at a 6-percent return a year? That is $60,000 a year the rest of your life without touching the principal. So I think this is an abuse by rich people, really, to protect over $1 million in savings. The PRESIDING OFFICER. All time has expired on the Feinstein amendment.…”