Bankruptcy Bill Heads Towards The FinishLine

WASHINGTON - (03/17/05) -- The House Judiciary Committeerejected almost two dozen amendments to the bankruptcy reform billproposed by Democrats during a marathon drafting session all dayWednesday, then voted to send the credit union-backed measure on tothe full House for expected passage, probably in the first week ofApril. Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., insisted atthe start he wanted to pass the same bill passed by the Senate lastweek in order to avoid a potentially contentious House-Senateconference to reconcile separate versions of the bill. "I stronglyencourage all members of this committee to reject all amendments tothis legislation," Sensenbrenner said. John McKechnie, chieflobbyist for CUNA, said passage of identical bills was a strategyagreed to by congressional leaders after the last Congress, whenthe bill got hung up and died in conference. "I think this bearsout the strategy agreed to by the leadership between(congressional) sessions," McKechnie told The Credit UnionJournal.