Sen. Durbin addresses bankruptcy bill on the Senate floor
I am posting Senator Durbin's comments on the bankruptcy bill from his address to the Senate Monday. He speaks plainly and he seems to say just the right words to cut through the political mire and say it like it is.
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD
SENATE
PAGE S11750
Oct. 24, 2005
(Senator Dick Durbin, D-IL)
Mr. DURBIN. I thank the President for recognizing me.
I would like to follow on the remarks made by the Democratic leader of the Senate. The American people we represent expect us on the floor of the Senate to truly represent them and their real concerns-the needs of their families, the needs of their communities, the needs of businesses and farmers. We are elected to speak for them and to come together in common purpose on a bipartisan basis and deal with the real issues Americans face.
I would certainly acknowledge that the pending appropriations bill for Labor, Health and Human Services, which includes education as well, is one of the most important appropriations bills that addresses those needs. In years gone by, there was a Congressman from Kentucky named Bill Natcher who was the chairman of the subcommittee that handles this bill. He always called this bill on the House floor the "people's appropriations bill." I think it was aptly named because it meant so much.
So as we visit this bill this week, it is time well spent, time to reflect on what we can do to help education in America, time to reflect on what we can do in the area of health care for America, medical research for America. It is time to look at some of the most basic programs we count on.
Sadly, this bill is the exception, it is not the rule.
Too many times we come to the floor of the Senate not to serve the needs of the people of this great Nation, but to serve the needs of special interest groups. They dominate this process because it has become such an expensive process. Unless you are independently wealthy and can finance your own campaigns from the millions of dollars you made before you came to the Senate, most Senators, mere mortals, spend their time raising money. From whom? Well, from their voters somewhat but, by and large, from special interest groups. So it is no surprise that the agenda of the Senate reflects those special interest groups.
Just a week ago, the new law went into effect. Professor Warren of Harvard Law School this morning in the New York Times talks about what it is going to mean. This was a 9-year effort by the financial institutions and credit card companies of America to make it more difficult for families to file for bankruptcy. Nine years they put into it, and they finally scored their big victory this year. They got this new bankruptcy bill passed.
What it means is fewer people who walk into bankruptcy court will be able to walk out with a clean slate. Many people walking in, crushed by debt, will find themselves walking out still carrying most of that debt.
Who are these people? Who are these folks who have been accused of abusing the bankruptcy system? Take a look at them: Over half of them are people who were overwhelmed by one thing-medical bills. There was an article in the New York Times this Sunday on the front page-my colleagues might have read it-of a family with health insurance and a sick baby who ended up losing their home, despite the fact they had health insurance, because of the serious medical problems that little baby faced.
This new bankruptcy law pushed on us by financial institutions and credit card companies will make it more difficult for families like that to ever erase the slate and start over. The special interests won again.
