¶With the start of the second (final) session of the 105th Congress, a major bankruptcy reform bill will soon be introduced by Rep. George W. Gekas, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law. The bill is expected to cover consumer, commercial and administrative issues, including "consensus" items from the NBRC report. Veteran Subcommittee Counsel Charles Kern retired in December. Dina Ellis, Legislative Counsel to Rep. Gekas, is expected to be the lead counsel on the new bill.

¶The "Responsible Borrower Protection Bankruptcy Act of 1997" (H.R. 2500) has more than 160 co-sponsors and is still pending in the House Judiciary Committee. The bill’s "needs- based" consumer bankruptcy concept is expected to be incorporated into the new Gekas bankruptcy bill.

¶The "Consumer Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1997" (S. 1301) is still pending in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Hearings are expected this spring. The bill also includes some of the elements found in the bankruptcy "technical corrections" bill (H.R. 764) that passed the House in November.

¶The "Bankruptcy Judgeship Act of 1997" (H.R. 1596) is also still pending in the Senate Judiciary Committee, having passed the House during the first session of this Congress.

¶Legislation to make chapter 12 permanent (S. 1204) passed the Senate in late October and is pending in the House.

¶The General Accounting Office released a draft report that questions the widely cited Purdue University Credit Research Center study, which found that people who file for bankruptcy could generally pay back more of their debts.