New bankruptcy bill will de-prioritize alimony and child support owed . .

[TaleWgnDg]

.
"NOW (National Organization of Women) Action Alert
Urge U.S. House to Defeat Bankruptcy Bill

April 12, 2005

America's pockets are being picked by the credit card industry and Congress is driving the get away car!

Take Action: Please contact your Representative today and urge a vote against H.R 685, the bankruptcy bill that is a boon to credit card companies and a disaster for individuals and families facing economic and health care crises.

The bill, already passed by the Senate, will come to the House floor this week and will be railroaded through and gleefully signed by the President unless we speak up. Take action NOW.

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"NOW Condemns Congressional Efforts to Pass Discriminatory Bankruptcy Bill (news release)"

"Statement of NOW Action Vice President Olga Vives

"April 12, 2005

"This week, NOW members across the country are petitioning their members of Congress because they want to be very clear: America's pockets are being picked by the credit card industry and Congress is driving the getaway car. H.R. 685, the federal bankruptcy bill, is a gift to the U.S. credit card industry at the expense of women and their families. Unless we defeat this bill, Congress will simply become the policy arm of Visa and MasterCard — who will soon want their logos on the Capitol dome for all the money they have spent buying the votes of our legislators.

"Most people filing for bankruptcy are in economic straits due to illness and large medical bills, and many of these people are part of the middle class who have lost their jobs and health insurance due to illness. Women are the fastest growing group of bankruptcy filers due to lower lifetime incomes caused in part by the wage gap and care-giving responsibilities, divorce and lack of child support and health insurance coverage. More than one out of every six mothers will be bankrupt by the end of the decade, yet these millions of women now face a possible law which will eliminate their ability to start over.

"For parents who are owed child support, this bill would remove the existing payment priority which currently favors past due support, instead placing child support and alimony on equal footing with all other debts. So mother owed support have to compete head-to-head with the credit card collection agencies — it won't be the kids who end up collecting.

"The industry that passes out credit card solicitations like candy now wants to ensure that it gets paid first before other debts are partially paid, such as child support. They have perpetrated a smear campaign against people filing for bankruptcy, accusing them of cheating, being lazy or poor money managers.

"In truth, this bill should be called the Credit Card Protection Act, because it downgrades or ignores the economic anguish that overwhelms people — mainly the elderly, members of the military, women dependent on receiving child support and families facing ruinous medical emergencies.

"We will not let this happen without lifting a voice for women, their families and people in crisis."

"FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
"CONTACT: JENNY THALHEIMER, 202-628-8669 x 116 "
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"This news release can also be found online
"All past news releases can be found at: http://www.now.org/press
"You can also join this or other NOW lists."

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(boldface emphasis, above, added by TaleWgnDg)
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[dsc]

1. With all due respect

This is very late in coming. This should have been put out when the Senate was voting on this. It is too late now.

[patricia92243]

2. Unfortunately, I was thinking the very same thing. Child support WOULD ha

have gotten people off their duffs,and maybe something could have been done.

[highlonesome]

4. It's not true

I don't think they're telling the truth. According to the Bradley amendment child support payments and arrearages cannot be forgiven or foregone for ANY reason. I mean, there was even a guy who was held hostage in Kuwait during Gulf War I and didn't pay support for those three months. When he came home he was arrested on the spot.

Child Support and bankruptcy are completely separate issues. NOW just lkes to use stuff like that to scare people.

[TaleWgnDg]

3. It's gone . . . poof . . .

.
The deal is sealed -- GWBush will sign it -- and the Credit Card Companies now *own* your *ss as the gulf deepens b/t the rich and poor and the burden shifts from government assistance (such as good legislation, e.g., effective reasonable bankruptcy laws) to the individual's back and off the shoulders of corporate America -- a *real* nose holder

"Thursday, April 14, 2005
"BREAKING NEWS ~ US House passes bankruptcy bill
"Jeannie Shawl at 3:43 PM

"(JURIST) AP is reporting that the US House has approved the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 (bill summary) by a vote of 302-126 (House roll call). The legislation, designed to make it harder for those in debt to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and already passed by the Senate (JURIST report), will now go to President Bush for his signature. AP has more. JURIST's Paper Chase has background (JURIST report)."

I did not include the embedded hyperlinks in the above Jurist news article. Please go to their url to see and use their hyperlinks, at http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2005/04/breaking-news-us-house-passes.php

[WildClarySage]

5. up is down and black is white and this is "consumer protection".

[samilib]

6. That bill is horrible no matter what.

If we cannot stop the bill, is there any chance of amending it to include child support payments?

[TaleWgnDg]

7. The *new* bankruptcy law passed

.
The *new* bankruptcy law passed both the House and the Senate and it is expected that George Walker Bush will sign it into law ASAP. (Has he signed it already?)

As for amending this new bankruptcy law to return child support and alimony to its priority position? I doubt that any such amendment would pass muster in any Republican majority House or Senate . . . and then there's the potentiality that even if it did pass in a Democratic Party majority congress, if a GOPer was president, would s/he then veto it?

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edited to add: And, welcome to DU, samilib :hi:

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