Roe Helps Save Only Bankruptcy Court in Northeast Tennessee

Statement

Rep. Phil Roe, M.D. (R-Tenn.) released the following statement after President Trump signed H.R. 8337, the Continuing Appropriations Act, into law. In addition to extending federal appropriations through December 11, this legislation extended the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Eastern District of Tennessee, which was scheduled to lapse on September 30, 2020, for an additional four years:

"This is the only bankruptcy judgeship in Northeast Tennessee, and I'm thrilled we were successful in extending it. I've been working for months, along with Senators Alexander and Blackburn, to ensure this judgeship would continue. Allowing the court to lapse would have greatly disadvantaged Northeast Tennessee. Bankruptcy cases from our region would have been reassigned to the bankruptcy courts in Knoxville and Chattanooga, which would add more cases to both courts, force many East Tennesseans to make hours-long trips to have their cases heard and prevent them from having similar access to emergency hearings to halt foreclosures and injunctions. I'm thankful that this court will be extended for 4 more years and that the Administrative Office of U.S. Courts has recently recommended to Congress that this court be extended or made permanent."

Note: Rep. Roe wrote House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler and Ranking Member Jim Jordan on July 28, 2020, to encourage the extension of this court. That letter can be found here. H.R. 8337 extended the Eastern District of Tennessee's bankruptcy court, located in Greeneville, for 4 additional years.

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