Delay Vicious Debt Slavery Law at Least for Katrina Victims!

October 18, 2005: Congress Members and Senators Ask GAO to Study the Adverse Impacts of the Debt Slavery Act of 2005.
PDF of letter

Can We Kick These People Out of the Democratic Party?

Deep in Debt, Deep in Trouble, Wisconsin State Journal, Sept 10, 2005

Bankruptcy on a Dime: Think Fast, New York Times, Sept.10, 2005

No rest for living, or dead, after Katrina, Reuters, Sept. 10, 2005

Temporary Compassion While Cameras Are Rolling, By Dave Lindorff, Sept. 10, 2005

First the House, Now the Senate, TPM Cafe, Sept. 9, 2005

Introduction of Senate Bill, Congressional Record, Sept. 9, 2005

Campaign for America's Future Urges Protecting Hurricane Victims from Credit Card Companies' Law, Sept. 9, 2005

How Can Anyone Vote No? , Elizabeth Warren, TPM Cafe, Sept. 8, 2005

Reps. Conyers, 31 Other Members, Introduce Bill to Relieve Bankruptcy Burden On Katrina Survivors, Sept. 8, 2005

CFA, Attorneys: Congress Should Give Katrina Victims Financial Relief By Delaying Severe New Bankruptcy Law, Sept. 8, 2005

Law to Deal Second Blow to Victims of Hurricane, Houston Chronicle, Sept. 8, 2005

Bankruptcy Bill Introduced Today, ConyersBlog, Sept. 8, 2005

Calls for bankruptcy relief post-Katrina, CNN/Money, Sept. 7, 2005

Taking Steps to Protect Hurricane Victims from Price Gouging and Bankruptcy, ConyersBlog, Sept. 2, 2005

Conyers Readies Gas Price Gouging, Hurricane Bankruptcy Bills, Raw Story, Sept. 2, 2005

Reps. Conyers, Watt, Nadler, Jackson Lee To Introduce Bill to Relieve Debt Burden On Katrina Survivors, Sept.2, 2005

Democrats.com Proposes Repealing the New Bankruptcy Law, Sept. 2, 2005

Public Policy and Katrina, ConyersBlog, Sept. 1, 2005

Conyers on DailyKos, Sept. 1, 2005

New Bankruptcy Law a Problem for Katrina Victims, Reuters, Sept. 1, 2005

US Dems Urge Easing Bankruptcy for Katrina Victims, Reuters, Sept. 1, 2005

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HEY, CONGRESS, WE KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SPRING:

Tom DeLay and the loansharks are coming for you!!!

Bankruptcy Bill Battle is Just the Beginning

Bankruptcy Bill Opponents Thank Congress Members Who Voted No, Promise to Hold Accountable Those Who Voted Yea, and Prepare for Upcoming Battles

How the House voted
How the Senate voted
Bush signed the bill into law on April 20, 2005.  It will take effect 180 days from that date.

Following Senate passage of the bankruptcy bill on March 10, Democrats.com and Progressive Democrats of America created a coalition at  www.DebtSlavery.org to work against passage in the House. On April 14, 2005, that effort fell short by  a vote of 302-126.  But compared to the 90 Democrats who voted for a nearly identical bill in 2003, only 73 Democrats voted Yes this time.  Of the 22 Democrats who campaigned for the bill and whom DebtSlavery.org targeted to change their votes, three reversed their   positions and voted No - John Larson (D-CT), Jay Inslee (D-WA) and Adam Smith (D-WA) - while a fourth, Shelley Berkley (D-NV), did not vote.

Read a statement on the vote and future plans by the leaders of Democrats.com and PDA:
http://elandslide.org/elandslide/issues2.cfm?id=1348&type=news

The Backbone Campaign has made available for easy printing and mailing Spineless Citations for the 73 House Members who voted with the credit card companies on the Debt Slavery Bankruptcy Bill: http://www.backbonecampaign.org/page.cfm?ID=64

Fight back against the credit card companies at http://www.plasticrevolution.org 

Here's a list of all the congress members who voted No this time but had voted yes for a nearly identical bill in the past:  http://democrats.com/node/4284

Read a press release from the National Organization for Women: http://elandslide.org/elandslide/issues2.cfm?id=1349&type=news

Read transcript of David Swanson of DebtSlavery.org on Democracy Now! http://democrats.com/node/4292 or watch video: http://www.davidswanson.org/video/demnow.rbn.ram

Listen to David Swanson of DebtSlavery.org on the media's coverage of the bankruptcy bill on CounterSpin: http://www.davidswanson.org/audio/cspin4-15-05.mp3

Listen to David Swanson of DebtSlavery.org on the Thom Hartmann Show: http://www.davidswanson.org/audio/HartmannShow-(15-4-2005).wav

At a press conference in Washington, D.C., on April 13, 2005, Congressman and Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee John Conyers and Congresswoman and Member of the House Financial Services Committee and Co-Chair of the Progressive Caucus Barbara Lee joined representatives of labor, women, consumers, children, seniors, veterans, activists, and academics, united in opposition to one of the most destructive bills we've all seen in years: S. 256, the bankruptcy bill. 

See the press release.

Here's an MSNBC story.

Here's a CNN story quoting Travis Plunkett of the Consumer Federation of America, who MC'd the press conference.

Here's a Salon.com article

Here's a Philadelphia Inquirer Article

Here's an NPR Story

Here's a press release from the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights.

Here's a statement by David Swanson of DebtSlavery.org.

Here's a statement by Joan Entmacher of the National Women's Law Center.

Here's a release from MoveOn.org.

Here's a statement from Olga Vives, Vice President of the National Organization for Women.

Here's a statement from 23 national labor unions and the AFL-CIO.

Here's a release from the Drum Major Institute.

Here's a statement from Demos President Miles Rapoport.

Here's a statement from the United Auto Workers.

Here are statements from the National Consumer Law Center.

Here is a letter from US PIRG.

Here's a release from Public Campaign Action Fund.

Click "Write Your Rep" to Email and phone your congress member to thank them for voting No or upbraid them for voting Yes.  Here's how they voted.  Click "Links" for information on the bill.

 Then please take the following actions:

• Deluge every talk show, including conservative ones -- lots of conservatives declare bankruptcy too!
• Deluge every tv and radio station’s news room with encouragement to cover both how truly awful this bill is and the surging public campaign to hold accountable those who voted for it.
  
  

The "Debt Slavery" Bankruptcy Bill was written by credit card companies, which made $30 billion in profits in 2004 - but are blinded by greed. 

The bill will change current law to prevent you from declaring bankruptcy under Chapter 7, which pays off your debts by liquidating your assets, giving you a fresh start financially. Instead, it will force you into Chapter 13 with a rigid 5-year repayment plan. You will no longer be able to protect your car and home, and you will have to pay greater legal fees.

Simply put, you will become a debt slave to the credit card companies.

When the Senate passed this bill, it rejected a dozen crucial changes to make the bill humane- such as exemptions for serious medical problems, exemptions for those in the military, an interest rate limit of 30%, protecting the homes of the elderly, and comparably strict treatment of those who are rich.

Help us create a grassroots firestorm around the outrageous passage of this bill by putting our Blogad (on the right) on your Web site with a link to http://debtslavery.org, and by making a contribution if you can.