WASHINGTON-House Judiciary Committee Republicans were able to speedily dispense with amendments raised during the mark up of H.R. 975, Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2003. The March 12 mark up was a roller coaster ride for the credit union carve-out on voluntary reaffirmations. The bill was ultimately reported favorably out of committee, without amendment, on a party line vote of 18-11 with one Democrat voting `pass.' Of the 16 amendments offered during the mark up, two directly affected the reaffirmation provision. The first, offered by Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) would have altered the way reaffirmations would be approved, according to CUNA Senior Vice President of Government Affairs John McKechnie. After "working with the entire committee all day," he saw CUNA's work come to fruition when the amendment was defeated by voice vote. A second amendment to credit unions' voluntary reaffirmations was introduced by Congressman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), who had previously attacked the provision during a subcommittee hearing. His amendment attempted to strip out credit union members' ability to voluntary reaffirm debts with their credit union. Nadler said he was concerned because credit unions are not included in the cap on reaffirmation agreements to 100% of a bankruptcy filer's disposable income. McKechnie speculated that Nadler, an adamant opponent of H.R. 975, was trying to bring credit unions to oppose the bill by taking out the reaffirmation provision. NAFCU Director of Legislative and Political Affairs Brad Thaler said that Commercial and Administrative Law Subcommittee Chairman Chris Cannon defended the voluntary reaffirmation provision, explaining that credit unions are unique and represent the community and, therefore, are unlikely to be abusive in reaffirmation agreements. It was defeated with eight in favor of the amendment and 18 against, according to the credit union lobbyists. "True to his word, Chairman Sensenbrenner is moving on this as quickly as he can," CUNA Vice President of Legislative Affairs and Senior Legislative Counsel Gary Kohn remarked earlier in the week. He added that he expected the House Rules Committee to invoke the closed rule when the bill comes to the House floor so that no additional amendments can be brought up. "We would anticipate there'd be an effort to get it to the House floor not too long after that, certainly before they go home before the April recess, we think," Kohn said. "However, the whole war situation has the potential for throwing these schedules off kilter and [we're] not quite sure what the impact would be. It might just be a short-term impact although speculation is that legislators will actually be in town more days if there is a war rather than fewer days." In addition to the reaffirmation provision, credit union lobbyists have been strongly supporting provisions regarding means testing for Chapter 7 filers and requiring mandatory financial counseling prior to filing for bankruptcy. [email protected]