Patrick Leahy: “I have tried over the last several weeks to improve this bankruptcy legislation through the legislative process. We were…”

“I have tried over the last several weeks to improve this bankruptcy legislation through the legislative process. We were able to have an informative hearing and a productive Committee markup. Unfortunately, the Committee did not provide a Committee report to inform other Senators of what was good about the bill and what prompted eight members of the committee to vote against it. This important matter was, instead, rushed to the floor last week. Last Monday we began debating the bill, but on Tuesday, the first day the bill was open to amendment, the Republican leadership abandoned work on the bill. Instead, the Republican leadership chose to shift the Senate's attention to overriding the ergonomics rule that had been developed by the Department of Labor over the past decade. On Wednesday we returned to the bankruptcy bill but beginning on Thursday and carrying through until Tuesday of this week, the main focus of the debate were the competing budgetary amendment on providing a lockbox for Medicare. That too is an exceedingly important topic and one on which a majority of the Senate voted to adopt the Democratic lockbox proposal. That proposal is not in the bill because after the vote the Republican side invoked the Budget Act and the chair ruled that the amendment, although supported by a majority of the Senate was not consistent with the technical requirements of the Budget Act.”