Congress is once again deciding whether to pass so-called bankruptcy abuse prevention legislation, a bill conceived and driven by overreaching credit card and finance companies. Companies that start targeting our kids in their senior year at high school and that are now expanding into the “elderly market.” Companies that flood our mailboxes with checks and “easy credit” opportunities, and that encourage us to buy our groceries in credit. This legislation will effect major changes to the bankruptcy laws that will make it much more difficult and expensive to file for bankruptcy.

Democratic Congressman Mike Michaud has already voted to pass the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention Act in the U.S. House of Representatives, even though many of his former co-workers at Great Northern have been out of work and some may not get their jobs back if the work force is cut under a new owner. Some of those families unfortunately may need the protection of the bankruptcy laws to avert financial crises. Why would Rep. Michaud vote at this time to make bankruptcy relief more difficult and expensive for his constituents?

How will Republican Sen. Susan Collins stand when this bill makes its way to a Senate vote? Will the $105,000-plus that Collins received from credit card and finance companies to fund her 2002 re-election campaign sway her vote into the credit card companies’ corner? Credit card giant MBNA, at $86,000, was her single largest campaign contributor. We hope that Collins will choose to be the “Senator from Maine” and not the “Senator from MBNA” when it comes to this important vote.

Do legislators consider the full implications of their actions when they vote to make it more difficult and expensive for the men and women in uniform who have taken pay cuts, left their families and made other sacrifices to obtain financial relief if they need it when they come home? Just how do we benefit if their young families are further pressured by an insurmountable burden of debt? Nothing breaks up a family quicker than debt.

Credit collectors are merciless. They call you repeatedly at home, and are verbally abusive and threatening. They call you at work. They call your neighbors “looking for you.” They will not work out payment arrangements. Rather, they jack their interest rates to 29 percent and lump on late fees. Their hope? That you will re-mortgage your house to a sub-prime lender at high interest for 125-plus percent of its value to pay them off.

The fact is that the bankruptcy laws, which have been working just fine, are there to protect not only individuals, but all of society. Nothing breeds social unrest and broken families faster than citizens who labor under the weight of insurmountable debt. Debt relief, in one form or another, has been with us for generations; Caesar once declared debts forgiven to defuse a spate of social unrest. Our first Bankruptcy Act was passed in 1800. I have been filing bankruptcies and providing credit counseling for many years as both a legal services and private attorney.

The people who file for bankruptcy are like you and me. They are from all walks of life. They are uniformly shocked and dismayed to find themselves in a vulnerable financial position. Loss of jobs, chronically low wages, reductions in pay, business failures, illness, injury and family breakups are major causes of bankruptcy filings.

In Maine, people hopefully can emerge from bankruptcy with a modest roof over their heads, a car to get to work with and their furniture. Most will reaffirm and continue to fully pay their mortgages and secured loans in order to retain their homes and cars.

Anecdotal examples of movie stars and CEOs filing for bankruptcy while keeping their million-dollar mansions evidence bad exemption laws in Florida and Texas. For example, in Maine an individual is generally entitled to exempt only $25,000 of the equity in their home, while in Florida and Texas the sky is the limit. That is not a problem with the Federal Bankruptcy Act, but with two states that refuse to pass reasonable state exemption laws. Such abuse is certainly not a problem in Maine; the state OUR legislators serve.

Sarah LeClaire is an attorney in Presque Isle.