NACBA Goes to Washington, DC
([email protected]) or
to her colleague, Julie Seger (jseger@
hastingsgroup.com). All of us greatly
appreciated finding that Senator
Warren has not lost her enthusiasm
for standing up for families in financial
trouble, and that she will continue to
speak out forcefully on issues near and
dear to us as bankruptcy practitioners.
provision. We also urged them to
develop policies that would enable
debtors to continue with repayment
plans during the pendency of Chapter
13 plans. At the CFPB we discussed
the need for aggressive oversight and
enforcement against predatory actors
in the bankruptcy, debt settlement and
collection areas.
Other
important
Congressional
meetings included those with newlyelected Senator Gary Peters (MI),
our longtime friend and advocate for
consumer debtors’ rights Rep. Zoe
Lofgren (CA), Rep. Dan Kildee (MI), and
staff of Chief House Deputy Whip Rep.
Patrick McHenry (NC) , and Rep. John
Delaney (MD), who recently introduced
legislation (H.R. 449) broadly restoring
the student loan discharge. Other
meetings were conducted with the key
Judiciary Committee staff for Senators
Chuck Grassley (IA), Patrick Leahy
(VT), Dick Durbin (IL) and Al Franken
(MN), and staff for House Judiciary
Committee members Tom Marino (PA),
John Conyers (MI) and Hank Johnson
(GA).
Many thanks to NACBA colleagues who
joined me in DC for these meetings President Ed Boltz, Vice President
Jim Haller, Board Member John Rao,
Past Presidents Norma Hammes,
Matt Mason and Henry Sommer, and
Executive Director Dan LaBert.
NACBA will kick off the second annual
“Hill Day at Home” program at the end
of March. This is a chance to add
your voice to these efforts in your own
District. We know that achieving our
goals will not come easily or quickly,
but you can play an important role in
educating members of Congress, their
staffs, other policy makers and those
in our own communities of the urgent
need to address the student loan debt
problem, andthat bankruptcy relief
must be one part of the solution. I urge
you to be the effective advocate for
your clients that you are and sign up
today to participate in Hill Day at Home
by clicking here.
Elsewhere, we had a valuable meeting
to discuss the student loan debt
problem with the Deputy Secretary of
Treasury in charge of domestic finance
policy and approximately a dozen of her
policy aides. This meeting gave us an
opportunity to share the experiences of
bankruptcy debtors unable to discharge
student loans, and gave them the
chance to ask us questions to better
their understanding of both the details
and the scope of the problem.
Separate meetings were held with
senior staff at the Department
of Education, as well as with the
Consumer Protection Financial Bureau
(“CFPB”). At the Dept. of Ed. meeting,
we pressed those present to direct
their servicers to cease scorched earth
litigation strategies designed to prevent
virtually every debtor from receiving a
discharge under the “undue hardship”
National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys
Jim Haller (IL) dons a hard hat for serious financial discussion.
Spring 2015
CONSUMER BANKRUPTCY JOURNAL
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