New Bills Introduced

The following bankruptcy-related bills were introduced in the House during the first days of the 107th Congress:

• H.R. 188 (Smith, R-Mich.): a bill to permanently reenact chapter 12 of the Code. Chapter 12 expired on July 1. A permanent extension failed as part of the overall bill's failure to become law in December.
• H.R. 11 (Leach, R-Iowa): a bill to revise the banking and bankruptcy laws with respect to the termination of netting of financial services contracts, jointly referred to the Judiciary and Financial Services committees. This legislation was included in the omnibus package in the 106th Congress and also passed the House as a freestanding bill at the end of the session. The Senate took no action on the bill, which is a priority of the financial services community.
• H.R. 61 (Dreier, R-Calif.): a bill to promote youth financial education, referred to the Committee on Education.
• H.R. 184 (Slaughter, D-N.Y.): a bill to amend the Consumer Credit Protection Act to prevent credit card issuers from taking unfair advantage of college students, referred to the Financial Services Committee.
• H.R. 163 (Royce, R-Calif.): a bill to amend the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act to exempt mortgage services from certain requirements of the act with respect to federally related mortgage loans secured by a first lien, referred to the Financial Services Committee.

Privacy Comments Sought

The federal judiciary continues to seek comments on the privacy and security implications of providing electronic public access to court case files, such as over the Internet. Comments may be submitted electronically at www.privacy.uscourts.gov.