Read the latest update from Washington, designed to keep NACBA members informed about significant and relevant activity on the part of Congress, regulatory agencies and interest groups/think tanks.

On The Hill The Senate unanimously approved legislation on September 8th by Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Senator Al Franken (D-MN) clarifying Congress’ intent to allow family farmers to more easily reorganize their finances when they fall on hard times. S. 1237 Family Farmer Bankruptcy Clarification Act of 2017 reiterates Congress’ earlier action to enable bankrupt family farmers reorganizing their debts to treat capital gains taxes owed to a governmental unit, arising from the sale of farm assets during a bankruptcy, as general unsecured claims.  It also removes the Internal Revenue Service’s veto power over a bankruptcy reorganization plan’s confirmation, giving the family farmer a chance to reorganize successfully.

On September 6^th Senator Coons’ (D-DE) bill S. 1107, Bankruptcy Judgeship Act of 2017, passed the Senate. The bill extends temporary bankruptcy judgeships and calls for a five-year extension for 14 temporary bankruptcy judgeships and will create four new bankruptcy judgeships. With this bill, Delaware will retain its one permanent bankruptcy judge, will receive extensions of its five temporary bankruptcy judges and will receive an additional two temporary bankruptcy judgeships for five years to handle the heavy caseload for the district, which is one of the busiest in the country.

Representative Sean Duffy (R-WI) is pushing to have federal flood insurance reformed to avoid bankruptcy and to allow private insurance to run the program as opposed to the federal government. He wants to set flood insurance up so that the private market can come in and offer premiums and coverage at better prices than the federal government. Duffy agrees that helping Texas is the right thing to do, but warned continued subsidies to flood areas is not fiscally sound, and encouraged Congress to think about future disasters on the horizon.

In The Agencies On September 1^st the Education Department has notified the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) that it’s severing operating agreements with it, saying the regulatory body has “undermined” the mission to serve students and borrowers — particularly in its handling of student loan servicing issues. A copy of the letter notifying the CFPB of the decision was released Friday by Representative Virginia Foxx (R-NC), chairwoman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee. It’s signed by A. Wayne Johnson, chief operating officer of the Education Department’s Office of Federal Student Aid, and Kathleen Smith, acting assistant secretary in the Office of Postsecondary Education, and dated Thursday. It is claimed that the CFPB is using its jurisdiction in areas that Congress never intended.

OTHER Following the recent Equifax breach, U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), ranking member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, is calling on Equifax to immediately remove forced arbitration from all services offered to customers following a data breach that exposed 143 million Americans to identify theft. Equifax is currently touting free credit monitoring and identify protection services for victims of the breach through its TrustedID product. However, Equifax included forced arbitration clauses in the terms of use agreement customers must agree to when signing up for the services – effectively forcing victims of the breach to sign away their rights to seek access to court.

Feedback should be directed to Krista.DAmelio@NACBA.com