Collins statement on bankruptcy markup

"These bills help vital members of communities in my district and across the country, and passage will testify to what this committee can achieve for the American people, on a bipartisan basis, in the important areas of law within our jurisdiction . . . "

WASHINGTON — Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.), Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, made the following opening statement at today’s markup of four bankruptcy bills: H.R. 3311, the Small Business Reorganization Act of 2019; H.R. 3304, the National Guard and Reservists Debt Relief Extension Act of 2019; H.R. 2938, the Honoring American Veterans in Extreme Need Act of 2019 (HAVEN Act); and H.R. 2336, the Family Farmer Relief Act of 2019. Below are the remarks as prepared. Ranking Member Collins: The bankruptcy system is a critical component of our economy. It provides an important safety net for households and entrepreneurs when they need a fresh start. It also stabilizes and encourages lending, because it is a tried and true way for creditors to recover as much as feasible when things go wrong for borrowers. I am particularly happy that the committee will mark up today the Small Business Reorganization Act. This important bill, recently reintroduced by Representative Cline and Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law Subcommittee Chairman Cicilline, offers long-needed reform of chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code to help small businesses. Chapter 11 has, for many years, been the key to survival for firms that need to reorganize their debts so they can continue in business. Reorganization preserves jobs, investments and valuable contributors to our economy, but, for just as many years, chapter 11’s terms have been poorly suited to allow small businesses and their creditors to take full advantage of the relief it promises. To solve this problem, the bill takes as a model for small businesses the provisions of chapter 12 that help small family farmers reorganize their farming enterprises when needed. Chapter 12 has long worked well for family farmers. Weaving terms modeled on it into chapter 11 for general use in small business cases is a terrific idea. I was proud to have introduced the Small Business Reorganization Act last term with Subcommittee Chairman Cicilline, and I am proud to be an original cosponsor of it this term. This bill promises finally to make chapter 11 work for the entrepreneurs whose small businesses form the backbone of job creation and communities across our nation. We also consider today three other bipartisan bankruptcy bills. Respectively, these bills offer more flexibility in bankruptcy for servicemembers and their families and an increase in the amount of debt that can be reorganized in chapter 12 family farm bankruptcies. These bills help vital members of communities in my district and across the country, and passage will testify to what this committee can achieve for the American people — on a bipartisan basis, in the important areas of law within our jurisdiction — when we devote our time to that instead of things that matter more within the Beltway than they do back home.