Elizabeth Warren spoke Thurs, Sept 8 on The Al Franken Show. She's the Harvard law professor with a recent book on bankrupty which relates that the primary reason for bankruptcy is personal disaster: job loss, divorce, health crisis or natural disaster.
Yet, the new anti-bankruptcy bill, written by lobbyists for the credit industry prohibits using a natural disaster as an exception for bankrupty, meaning that even though you have no job, no income, no house, your debts and late fees pile up.
During the debate on the bill there was an effort to delete the clause about natural disasters, it was defeated with all Republicans voting against the ammendment. We need a hall of shame for those who voted against it.
Fortunately, we have an opportunity to revisit the issue, as new legislation is prepared to provide more flexibility for people facing bankruptcy.
See below
New Standard News reports:
When Congress passed a controversial bankruptcy bill back in April, it did not approve a proposed amendment that would have made it easier for victims of natural disaster to gain protection from creditors. Now, in the wake of the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina, some lawmakers will ask their colleagues to reconsider.
The new bill is intended to:
The four representatives -- Jerrold Nadler (D-New York), John Conyers, Jr. (D-Michigan), Mel Watt (D-North Carolina), and Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) -- said the legislation they plan to introduce will "prevent new bankruptcy provisions from having adverse and unintended consequences for the hundreds of thousands now facing financial catastrophe by providing needed flexibility for victims of natural disasters in bankruptcy proceedings."
Further, from ConsumerAffairs.Com
It's estimated that more than half of New Orleans area homeowners did not have flood insurance and thus will not be covered for water damage to their homes, although they will be eligible for grants and low-interest loans administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). But grant money is limited and the loan program is not without its problems.