mr. speaker , thank you for allowing me the opportunity to offer my remarks today regarding s. 256 , the so-called `` bankruptcy abuse prevention and consumer protection act. '' the issue of bankruptcy reform is extremely important and it is critical that we pass a measure that will both ensure greater personal responsibility of debtors , as well as ensure that credit card companies and other creditors take responsibility for their reckless lending . 
unfortunately , this bill does neither . 
in fact , the bill before us today overly penalizes working families . 
in fact , the bill before us today takes no action against reckless and predatory lending . 
this bill will do nothing to reduce the number of bankruptcy filings or address the problem of record-high consumer debt , which now stands at $ 2 trillion . 
as to the substance of the legislation , it is no secret that the number of bankruptcies has risen dramatically over the past few years . 
in 2001 , 1 , 398 , 864 people filed for bankruptcy in the united states . 
according to the center for american progress , in 2003 there were a record number of 5.5 personal bankruptcy filings for every 1 , 000 people living in the united states . 
in 2003 , my own state of new jersey ranked slightly below the national average at 4.8 filings per every 1 , 000 residents . 
this past year , the number of personal bankruptcies had risen to 1 , 584 , 170 , an increase of over 13 percent . 
in my own state of new jersey , citizens have seen a similar increase in bankruptcy filing over the past three years . 
with those facts in mind , i strongly support the principle of increased personal responsibility of debt . 
while there are many problems with s. 256 , i 'll name just a few of the more egregious provisions to which i strongly object . 
while the bill purports to elevate the priority of child support payments , in reality credit card companies would receive repayment of debt at the same rate as child support obligations . 
children and families will now compete with credit card companies for payment . 
the bill 's homestead-exemption cap does little to address the problem of wealthy debtors shielding their assets from creditors by purchasing million-dollar homes . 
sophisticated , wealthy debtors can easily plan ahead and evade the cap . 
the provision in the bill dealing with `` asset protection trusts '' also does not adequately address the problem of wealthy individuals stashing millions away the bill also imposes artificial deadlines and cumbersome new paperwork requirements on small businesses trying to reorganize , and it unnecessarily limits the discretion of bankruptcy judges in crafting the best possible result for small-business debtors and creditors . 
the rigid and unrealistic requirements will force many viable small businesses to permanently close their doors . 
mr. speaker , i recognize that there have been , and likely continue to be , abuses of the bankruptcy law , which was designed to be a safety net . 
as i 've said before , i strongly support increased personal responsibility for debt accrued . 
however , this should coincide with greater responsibility on the part of the creditors . 
it is the creditors who often shamelessly target college students and low-income individuals with their credit card applications . 
it is the creditors who subsequently grant these individuals higher levels of credit at high interest rates . 
it is the creditors who saddle these individuals with insurmountable levels of debt . 
in fact , it is estimated that the credit card industry mails out five billion unsolicited credit card offers a year . 
i believe we would be better served if we could fully debate the merits of this legislation , as well as substantive amendments that were disallowed from consideration by the full house . 
sadly , once again , we can not , and i urge my colleagues to oppose this legislation . 
