Jeff Sessions

Mr. SESSIONS

Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I send an amendment to the desk and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the amendment be agreed to, the committee substitute be agreed to, as amended, the bill be read the third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and that any statements relating to the bill be printed at this point in the Record.

Mr. SESSIONS

Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, for the information of all Senators, the majority leader would advise them that the Senate will convene for a brief session on Monday afternoon for scheduled announcements and possible procedural action on the bankruptcy conference report. On Tuesday, the Senate is expected to begin consideration of any available conference reports. Leadership will notify the Senators on Monday if votes will be necessary during Tuesday's session of the Senate. It is hoped the Senate can complete its business prior to the expiration of the current continuing resolution. Therefore, votes are possible on Tuesday and will occur throughout the day on Wednesday.

Mr. SESSIONS

Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I now ask unanimous consent that the Senate stand in recess under the previous order.

Mr. SESSIONS

Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, on behalf of the majority leader, I now ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it recess until the hour of 4:30 p.m. on Monday, October 23. I further ask unanimous consent that on Monday, immediately following the prayer, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and the Senate then proceed to a period of morning business until 4:45 p.m., with Senators speaking up to 5 minutes each with Senator Harkin recognized during the morning business.

Mr. SESSIONS

Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be read the third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and any statements relating to the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. SESSIONS

Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be read the third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and that any statements relating to the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on the Judiciary be discharged from further consideration of H.R. 2961, and the Senate then proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. SESSIONS

Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the concurrent resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and any statements relating to the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. SESSIONS

Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now proceed to the consideration of Calendar No. 587, S. 2406.

Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be read a third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and that any statements relating to the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. SESSIONS

Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now proceed to the consideration of Calendar No. 921, H.R. 4320.

Mr. SESSIONS

Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of H.R. 5234, received from the House.

Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be read a third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and that any statements relating to the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. SESSIONS

Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I am compelled to respond to some of the outlandish allegations that have been made against the bipartisan bankruptcy bill that passed this Senate twice with over 90 votes, I believe, both times. It is a bill that has been under discussion for well over 2 years. I personally negotiated not long ago with the White House and Senator Reid the last problem we had with the bill. We worked that out to the satisfaction of those who were negotiating it. I thought we were well on the way to finally passing this bill. What we have in this body is a group of Senators who vote for it but, when the chips are down, don't help us get it up for the final vote. The suggestion that there has been no opportunity for debate is certainly wrong. We debated it in committee, extensively in the Judiciary Committee, where I am a member. We debated it on the floor two separate years and earlier this year in great detail. We received a whole host of amendments, and we debated those amendments in detail. We voted on those amendments. It has gone to conference. Now we have a bill on the floor, and Senators are complaining that they can't now offer more amendments. You don't amend a conference report after it has been to conference. That is true of every bill that ever goes through this body. It is shocking to me to hear some of the things that have been said about this bill. What this legislation does is say we have to do something about this incredible increase in the filing of bankruptcies in America. Over a million--it has doubled in 10 or 12 years--is the number of people who have been filing bankruptcy. Why is that so? Because you can go to your bankruptcy lawyer and if you owe $30,000 and you make $30,000 a year, you can file bankruptcy, not pay your debts, not pay one dime that you owe--not a dime--and walk away scot-free by filing under chapter 7. That is happening every day in this country, and it is an absolute abuse. It is wrong. The family that does its best every day to pay its debts and tries to do right, are they chumps? Are they dumb because they don't run up a bunch of debts and not pay their debts and then go down to the bankruptcy lawyer and just file bankruptcy, even though they could have paid those debts if they tried to do so? This bill addresses at its fundamental core the bankruptcy machine that is out there being driven by advertising you see on your TVs virtually every night all over America until 11 or 12 o'clock. There are these ads: Got debt problems? Call old Joe, the bankruptcy lawyer. He will take care of you. Do you know what they tell them when they get there? They say: First of all, Mr. Client, you need to pay me $1,000, $2,000. I really don't have that, Mr. Lawyer. Don't pay any more debts. Get all your paychecks. Collect all your paychecks. Bring the money to me. Keep paying on your credit card. Run up your debt, and then we will file bankruptcy for you, and we will wipe out all the debts; you won't have to pay them. The lawyer gets his money. There are lawyers of whom I am aware personally who get paid $1,000 or more and have done 1,000 or more in 1 year. That is $1 million a year, just routine, running this money through the system, basically ripping off people who need to be paid. Make no mistake about it, when an individual does not pay what he owes and what he could pay, we all pay. Who pays? The one who is honest and pays his debts. He ultimately gets stuck with higher interest rates. The businesses lose money and can't afford to operate. That is what is happening. They say: Well, it is health care. If you have severe medical problems and you are not able to pay your debts, you ought not to have to pay your debts. But why should you be able to not pay the hospital, if you can? That is the question. If you can pay the bill, shouldn't you pay it? That is the question. The fundamental part of this bill is, if you are making above median income in America, that is adjusted by how many children you have. If you have more children, your income level goes up for median income-- the factors included in that. So if you can't pay your debt, you get to wipe out all your debts just like today under chapter 7. If your income is $100,000 a year and you owe $50,000 and you can easily pay at least some of that $50,000, under this law--and you make above median income--you can ask the creditors whom who you are not paying to ask the judge to put you into chapter 13. The judge may say: Mr. Debtor, you owe $50,000. We don't believe you can pay all the debt. You need to pay $10,000 of that back, and you will pay it so much a month over 3 years in chapter 13. Chapter 13 is not a disaster. It is not a horrible thing. As a matter of fact, in my State, chapter 13 is exceedingly popular. I believe more than half of the bankruptcy filings in Alabama are filed under chapter 13 instead of chapter 7, which just wipes out your debt. With chapter 13, you go to the judge and say: I have more debts than I can pay. The creditors are calling me, and I can't pay all of them at once. The judge says: OK, stop. Pay all of your money to the court, and we will pay it out to each one of these creditors so much a month. You get to have so much to live on for you and your family. It works pretty well. We need to do more of this. That is what this legislation will do. That is the fundamental principle. They say: Well, it doesn't do anything about credit card solicitations. This isn't a credit card bill. This is a debt bill. This is a bankruptcy bill. We have a banking committee that deals with credit card legislation. We had votes on credit card legislation on the floor, and people have had their say. Some passed, and some didn't. This is not a credit card bill. This is a bill to reform a legal system in America, the bankruptcy court system, which is a Federal court system that I believe is in a disastrous condition. We have had this surge of bankruptcy filings. It has become a common thing to just up and file for bankruptcy. People used to have a severe aversion to ever filing for bankruptcy. Now that is being eroded by the advertisements and so forth that they see. There is an abuse going on. They say it does not do anything for women and children. I am astounded at that. Under this law, alimony and child support will be moved up to the No. 1 priority in bankruptcy--even above the lawyers. That is probably why we got such an objection. The bankruptcy lawyers are the ones stirring this up, in my view. That means if a deadbeat dad wants to file bankruptcy and doesn't pay his debt, comes in and has a low or moderate salary and doesn't want to pay anybody, under the old law his child support was way down behind the lawyer fees, bankruptcy fees, and some other things. We moved it up to No. 1. The first money that comes into the bankruptcy pot, if there is any, comes in there. Normally, that money goes to pay child support, which is, I believe, a historic move in favor of children. This bill has broad support. It was suggested earlier that small business is being hurt by it. Small business favors it. They all favor this. We are not stampeding this bill. This bill has been delayed unconscionably. It should have passed 2 years ago. It should have passed last year. It ought to pass this year. We have a veto-proof majority in the House and a veto-proof majority in the Senate. It helps this economy. It helps bring integrity back into the system. It allows individuals to go down there to bankruptcy and represent themselves. They don't even have to have a lawyer. It has a lot of different things in it that are good. It eliminates a lot of loopholes and abuses that everybody agrees need to be fixed. I can't understand this. It seems to me there is some sort of effort to yell, scream, and just say how horrible it is, and perhaps provide some figleaf to encourage the President to veto this bill. I hope he does not. They say: Well, it has a protection in there for millionaires to have money in their houses in Florida and Texas and States that have an unlimited homestead exemption. That is a problem. I have fought to eliminate that. We were not able to do that. The States that have the historic State procedures on this fought us tooth and claw. But this bill makes substantial progress toward eliminating that view. There is no doubt that the problem with homestead is far better in this legislation today than it is under current law if we don't do anything about it. A vote against this bill is a vote to keep the ineffective, bad current law, and not make the improvement this bill makes. I believe it is good legislation. Senator Grassley has worked on it tenaciously. We have been very cooperative with others who have problems. Time and again, it has been fixed to accommodate concerns that others would have. I believe it is a fair bill. I believe it is a good bill. I believe it is time for this country to improve what is going on in bankruptcy all over America today. And most bankrupts are entitled to it and need it. But there are substantial numbers with high incomes who could pay large portions of that debt, if they wanted to. But once they talked to those lawyers who tell them they don't have to, they file under chapter 7 and wipe out much of their debts, and they go on leaving someone else to carry the burden. I thank the Chair for the time. I yield the floor.

Mr. SESSIONS

Mr. SESSIONS. I ask unanimous consent the amendment be agreed to, the bill be read the third time and passed, as amended, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and that any statement relating to the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. SESSIONS

Mr. SESSIONS. I ask unanimous consent the Energy Committee be discharged from further consideration of H.R. 3657, and the Senate then proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. SESSIONS. Senator Murkowski has an amendment at the desk. I ask for its consideration.

Mr. SESSIONS

Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now proceed to the consideration of Calendar No. 862, H.R. 2442.

Mr. SESSIONS

Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate now proceed to the consideration of Calendar No. 860, S. 2915.

Mr. SESSIONS

Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and that any statements relating to the resolution be printed in the Record.

Mr. SESSIONS

Mr. SESSIONS. I ask unanimous consent the amendment be agreed to, the bill be read the third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and any statements relating to the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. SESSIONS

Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the Energy Committee be discharged from further consideration of H.R. 4835, and the Senate then proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. SESSIONS. I ask unanimous consent the bill be read the third time and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid upon the table, and any statement relating to the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. SESSIONS

Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Foreign Relations Committee be discharged from further consideration of H. Con. Res. 232, and the Senate then proceed to its immediate consideration.