mr. speaker , for as long as i 've been in congress i have supported bankruptcy reform on two simple principles ; i believe people should pay their debts , if they are able , and that we should end abuses in the system , whether by people who deliberately run up their bills or by businesses who exploit the gullible and the unfortunate . 
my first vote in favor of bankruptcy reform was cast with reservations because some of the provisions of the bill seemed unduly harsh , but i had hoped that the legislative process would ultimately improve the product . 
unfortunately , for 8 years we have been unable to see the bill move through the legislative process and improve ; it appears as though the bill , if anything , is actually less adequate due to increasing predatory lending by credit card companies and skyrocketing medical costs . 
one of my deep concerns has been credit card mills , which send out millions of credit cards to people who are not creditworthy . 
in 2001 there were 5 billion solicitations by credit card companies . 
meanwhile , skyrocketing fees have been coupled with reduced minimum payments . 
bait-and-switch techniques have been employed that change the terms and raise the interest rates of cardholders who have never missed a payment . 
while s. 256 contains overly harsh punishments for middle class americans that have been preyed upon by the credit card industry , it preserves loopholes for the very rich . 
s. 256 maintains a homestead exemption that allows people with lots of money to shield their assets by purchasing multimillion dollar homes in certain states . 
o.j. simpson was able to shield many of his assets by doing this in florida . 
there are even sophisticated trust arrangements that enable people with substantial sums of money to be protected from the provisions of this bankruptcy bill . 
there are some simple , common sense changes that could be made to this bill that would make it more fair to all parties involved . 
the senate , however , was unwilling to compromise and approve any of these provisions and the house leadership has prevented any of these proposals from even being debated on the floor . 
perhaps the most glaring example of the majority 's unwillingness to compromise is the rejection of an amendment that would protect soldiers injured in iraq and afghanistan from the unfair i have had meetings over the years with individuals who represent all sides of this issue : the bankruptcy trustees , judges , and lawyers who represent the debtors , and the people who extend credit to businesses large and small and to individuals rich and poor . 
as a result of these meetings , it is clear that the loopholes do remain and that the abuses of lending practices are not being reigned in . 
the bill provides a mandate for unnecessary and burdensome paperwork and the most extreme requirements , including personal certification of the facts by the attorneys assisting the debtor that are not found anyplace else under any other legal provisions . 
this is going to shut down programs like the legal clinic at lewis and clark law school in portland and will make it harder for legitimate creditors to be able to get their money back in a timely fashion . 
the sad fact is that most bankruptcies are due to large medical bills , family breakup , and job loss . 
this legislation is going to put an unnecessary burden on the vast majority of unfortunate people and still allow too many of the unscrupulous to avoid their responsibilities . 
it does not have to be this way . 
i continue to hope that the political process will respond to these problems with sympathy and concern for the unfortunate . 
until that point , i can not support s. 256 in good conscience . 
