Bankruptcy reform '98 moves into its next phase with a consumer bankruptcy hearing scheduled for April 28 before the full Senate Judiciary Committee (Sen. Hatch, Chair). S. 1301, as amended by the Sub-committee on Administrative Oversight and the Courts on April 2, could be on the agenda for consideration by the full Senate Judiciary Committee on April 30. Consumer credit groups may seek to amend S. 1301 to strengthen protections for creditors, along the lines present in H.R. 3150. Amendments are expected to be offered.

In the House, a markup of H.R. 3150 is scheduled for the House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law (Rep. Gekas, Chair), on April 23. The full House Judiciary Committee (Rep. Hyde, Chair) is scheduled to consider the bill on April 29. Amendments are expected to be offered by both supporters and opponents of the bill.

Both bills could conceivably be reported to the respective floors before the Memorial Day recess, which runs from May 23-31.

On April 9, a group of 116 bankruptcy judges sent a joint letter to every member of Congress expressing "deep concern that the legislation presently before Congress would make fundamental changes in bankruptcy for individual debtors that have not been sufficiently considered." The judges’ letter tracks closely a March 31 letter to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees, signed by 57 bankruptcy law professors.

The full text of both letters are available at ABI World (http://www.abiworld.org). You can follow the daily legislative developments at "Today’s Headlines" from the home page.