The Senate approved a measure yesterday backed by the credit card industry that would make it harder for people to wipe out debt through bankruptcy, setting a path for quick passage of the bill by the House within weeks.
The 74 to 25 vote in favor of the bill, which would make the most significant changes in bankruptcy law in more than 25 years, was propelled by a 55-member Republican majority that voted in unison, joined by 18 Democrats and one independent.
House Republican leaders have promised to take up the bill next week and to deliver the votes to pass it. That commitment was based on the Senate keeping the bill free of major new amendments that would have undone scores of compromises made over several years in an effort to get it passed.
President Bush has said he would sign the bill. It would be the second major victory for big business in Bush’s second term, after passage last month of legislation intended to curb class-action lawsuits against corporations.
Republicans repeatedly said that all amendments, even those some Republican senators agreed with, had to be defeated because any change would undo delicate, hard-won compromises.
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