Copyright 2002 / Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles
Times
May 23, 2002 Thursday Home Edition
SECTION: Part A Main News; Part 1; Page 11; National
Desk
LENGTH: 509 words
HEADLINE: THE NATION;
Breaking Language Barrier of
Bankruptcy Bill;
Congress: Impasse over section aimed at
abortion foes is likely to be resolved. Measure would require
more people to work out repayment plans.
BYLINE: WARREN
VIETH, TIMES STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
BODY:
The key figures in a congressional impasse
that has snarled a sweeping bankruptcy reform bill agreed Wednesday to try to
resolve their differences and clear the way for the measure's passage.
Rep. Henry J. Hyde (R-Ill.) and Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.)
expressed confidence that they could come up with mutually acceptable language
to keep abortion foes from using bankruptcy
filings to avoid financial liability for illegal blockades of
abortion clinics. Schumer, an abortion-rights supporter, has
been pushing the provision; Hyde, an abortion foe, has fought it. Agreement on
the issue would remove the last major obstacle to passage of legislation
designed to tighten bankruptcy laws. The bill is backed by a coalition of
creditors who contend it has become too easy for Americans to dodge their debts
in bankruptcy court.
"We haven't gotten as far as I had hoped," said
Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.), chairman of a House-Senate conference
committee negotiating the bill. "But we have gotten closer to defining the
[abortion] issue better."
Among the bill's major provisions are rules
that would require more people to file under Chapter 13 of the bankruptcy code,
which requires them to work out partial repayment plans with their creditors,
instead of under Chapter 7, which eliminates debts.
Sensenbrenner said
the conferees would meet again in about two weeks to consider the legislative
language drafted by Hyde and Schumer.
The two issues have become
entangled because anti-abortion activists have used
bankruptcy filings to avoid paying judgments under a 1994 law
that allows clinics to sue protesters who obstruct, intimidate or interfere with
their operations.
The Senate version of the bill includes a provision
sponsored by Schumer that would make such fines "nondischargeable," meaning they
could not be eliminated in a bankruptcy proceeding. The House measure contains
no such provision, and Hyde has led the effort to keep the language out of the
final bill.
Schumer told members of the conference committee that
bankruptcy filings have become a favorite tactic of activists who conduct
illegal blockades designed to shut down abortion clinics. At least one
organization even requires its members to promise they will file for bankruptcy
if they become subject to court judgments, he said.
Hyde said he opposed
Schumer's amendment because he feared it would discourage peaceful protest by
persecuting "the 85-year-old retired nun standing in front of an abortion clinic
who crosses a police line she couldn't see or didn't know was there."
But he said he would be willing to accept language that is clearly
targeted at participants in the kind of illegal blockades that shut down many
abortion clinics before passage of the 1994 law.
Supporters of the bankruptcy bill expressed relief at
the prospect of a compromise. "Chuck and Henry have agreed on a principle here,"
said Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.). "It seems to me we're there, and it's
just a matter of getting the language."
LOAD-DATE: May
23, 2002 
