mr. speaker , over the last 18 months the house leadership has passed bills that are windfalls for the pharmaceutical industry , big oil , and they have given massive tax breaks to corporations while the deficit in this country continues to grow by records . 
now lining up for their share and licking their lips is the credit card industry who stands to make billions of dollars at the expense of american consumers . 
with the hope of helping to protect veterans from these regulations , i offered an amendment to this bill to simply waive any fee charged for credit counseling for any servicemember returning from a combat area for a period of 2 years . 
do my colleagues think that was allowed to come down here on the house floor for a vote ? 
absolutely not . 
many of these men and women have been away from their families , from their homes , their jobs for long periods of time because of unethical procedures that keep them overseas . 
many of these individuals have lost their businesses , they have lost their homes and they have bills and are going to suffer . 
our veterans , they will suffer because of this bankruptcy bill . 
mr. speaker , over the last eighteen months , the house leadership has passed bills that are windfalls to the pharmaceutical industry and big oil and , have given massive tax breaks to corporations , while the deficit continues to break records . 
now lining up for their share and licking their lips is the credit card industry , that stand to make billions of dollars at the expense of the american consumer . 
with the hope of helping to protect veterans from these new regulations , i offered an amendment to this bill to simply waive any fee charged for credit counseling for any service member returning from a combat area , for a period of two years . 
unfortunately , the majority did n't allow any . 
many of these men and women have been away from their families , homes and jobs for long periods of time because of unethical procedures that keep them overseas . 
this is resulting in severe economic hardships , business closures , homes foreclosures and bills unpaid . 
we must not penalize our troops for serving our country . 
it is appalling that any veteran would face bankruptcy because of their sacrifice . 
mr. speaker , i urge my colleagues to vote against this bill to protect american families and maintain a core american value to allow people a fresh start . 
