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   (Mr. SMITH of Washington asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute.)

   Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Speaker, today the House will vote on bankruptcy reform, and I rise today to urge all Members to support this bill. The bill ultimately is about personal responsibility. It is about holding people accountable for their own actions.

   Worse, the current bankruptcy situation puts us in a position where others are held accountable for those actions. They are the ones that have to bear the price of other people's choices. Worst, it basically spreads out from the middle class to the poorest of the poor. Those are the ones that have to pay more for retail items and for a variety of items because some people run up obligations that they either have no intention of meeting or do not meet.

   Also, small businesses are particularly devastated by bankruptcies. In many small businesses, one or two clients not paying can be the difference between being in business and out of business, and when they go bankrupt and do not pay, those small businesses suffer.

   This bill does not eliminate bankruptcy, it is out there as an option, but it makes changes to hold people accountable and responsible for their own financial decisions to make sure that, if they can pay, they do pay. We should not have a situation where people can declare bankruptcy, run out on their obligations to others, drive up costs for everybody else and still live a life better than 95 percent of the rest of the world.

   We need this bankruptcy reform bill.

END