Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2003

Floor Speech

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The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. Schakowsky) is recognized for 5 minutes in support of her motion to recommit.

Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 2 minutes.

I rise today with the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Loretta Sanchez) and the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Strickland) to offer this motion to recommit on behalf of our brave soldiers and their families and veterans across the country. My motion to recommit would provide basic protections to financially distressed military families and veterans from the harsher aspects of the means test found in the newly added text of S. 1920. This motion would provide safe harbor from the bill's means test for military and veterans' families and safe harbor for the widows of our servicewomen and men.

Without changing the bill, military personnel, veterans and their families could be dragged into court by their creditors. They could be harassed because of an arbitrary standard, the means test, that has no true reflection of whether they can pay their debt or not. The men and women who in the past have and do today risk their lives to protect us deserve protection from us in return. We should be offering them relief, not greater hardships.

Since 9/11, 350,000 reservists and guardsmen have been called to active duty and almost 40,000 are serving in Iraq. According to the National Guard, four out of 10 members of the Reserves and National Guard lose money when they leave their civilian jobs for active duty. Additionally, many left for the war thinking they would be deployed for 6 months and have ended up staying for a year or even longer. There is almost no way that they could have financially anticipated and prepared for that extension of their service.

We want to help people like Mrs. Vicky Wessel. When she appeared on "60 Minutes" last year, she expressed the concerns that many families of reservists whose husbands or wives have been called to active duty experience. What she talked about was the financial difficulty. She said, "It is because a staff sergeant's pay is a 60 percent cut in pay from my husband's regular job."

There are thousands of families like the Wessels. Make no mistake about it, these families will not be protected under the bill as it stands. These are people who, through no fault of their own, may end up in bankruptcy. They are risking their lives for us. And the veterans who have done so in the past, we should protect them. This is what my motion to recommit does.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 ½ minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Loretta Sanchez).

Ms. LORETTA SANCHEZ of California. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of this motion to recommit this bill with instructions to ensure that members of our military, veterans and their families are afforded bankruptcy protection under Chapter 7.

Every American knows that our Nation's greatest debt is to the men and the women who have worn the uniform of our country so that we can live in freedom and prosperity. Unfortunately, this has come at a very high price to many of the service members and to their families.

The war on terror is taking an entirely new toll, and a considerable portion of the burden is falling on our reservists. Never before have we asked so much of our troops. Nearly 250,000, including 120,000 reservists, have been fighting or are scheduled to begin service. Nearly 40 percent of the reservists suffer a major loss in income during this time. For many, the difference can amount to tens of thousands of dollars. As a result, service members are falling behind in their mortgages, depleting their life savings, losing personal businesses and racking up significant credit card debt. My colleagues might be surprised to know that some that are suffering the worst are medical doctors, self-employed doctors who were in private practices, but now have to leave them, have to keep the fixed overhead and pay that and come back. Their patients are gone, their nurses are gone, and they have thousands of dollars in unpaid bills.

Mr. Speaker, this country has a history of undertaking efforts to secure legal protections so that service members can devote their energy to the defense needs of our Nation. This motion would continue those efforts.

I urge all of my colleagues to vote "yes."

Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 ½ minutes to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Strickland).

Mr. STRICKLAND. Mr. Speaker, it is because of the unique financial situations that veterans and military personnel often find themselves in as a result of their military service to our country that I support this motion to recommit, which would exempt them from the means test under Chapter 7.

The means test used to determine whether a debtor can file under Chapter 7 is an arbitrary bureaucratic formula. Its mathematical variables really do not reflect the unique circumstances of deployed military personnel that experience sudden loss of income. The test does not look at the debtor's actual expenses or personal situation. Rather, it uses a hypothetical expense of what a debtor's cost of living is mathematically determined to be. The means test uses this figure to calculate excess money, and when someone has too much excess money, they are prohibited from filing under Chapter 7.

The only recourse left to the individual denied this is a court motion for permission to use actual income and expenses, and such a motion takes time and money, something our soldiers and our veterans do not have.

So I would just simply ask my colleagues to consider what we have asked of our veterans and what we are currently asking of our military personnel. They have endured much for us, and I ask that we simply honor their service by voting for this exemption.

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RECORDED VOTE

Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.

A recorded vote was ordered.

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