Big Money & Politics: Who Gets Hurt?: Soaked By Congress

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Congress is about to make life a lot tougher--and more expensive--for people like the Trapp family of Plantation, Fla. As if their life isn't hard enough already. Eight-year-old Annelise, the oldest of the three Trapp children, is a bright, spunky, dark-haired wisp who suffers from a degenerative muscular condition. She lives in a wheelchair or bed, is tied to a respirator at least eight hours a day, eats mostly through a tube and requires round-the-clock nursing care. Doctors have implanted steel rods in her back to stem the curvature of her spine.

Her parents, Charles and Lisa, are staring at a medical bill for $106,373 from Miami Children's Hospital. Then there are the credit-card debts. The $10,310 they owe Bank One. The $5,537 they owe Chase Manhattan Bank. The $8,222 they owe MBNA America. The $4,925 they owe on their Citibank Preferred Visa card. The $6,838 they owe on their Discover card. The $6,458 they owe on their MasterCard. "People don't understand, unless they have a medically needy child, these kinds of circumstances," says Charles Trapp, 42, a mail carrier.

Why would Congress add to the burdens of folks like the Trapps? The family has filed for bankruptcy, and Congress wants to make it a lot more difficult for other Americans to do the same, a change that would hit especially hard at women. And poor people. And the recently jobless. And the sick.

Under legislation Congress is expected to take up soon, families like the Trapps will be required to go through a series of means tests to justify their medical and other expenses. That will cost them: more money in legal bills, more days lost from work, more mental aggravation. Even worse, in the end they still might not qualify for bankruptcy assistance.

Most members of Congress believe in what they are doing. Senator Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, speaks for many of his colleagues when he says, "I hope this bill does make bankruptcy more embarrassing--and more difficult. In fact, I plead guilty that that is a motive behind our legislation."

The House passed its version of the bankruptcy bill last year. The Senate enacted its bill in February. Now members of both chambers are meeting in secret to iron out differences and put their finishing touches on what they call the Bankruptcy Reform Act, which has the ostensible goal of curbing abuses.

What is the real reason Congress is doing this? Because the legislation is just what banks, credit-card companies, debt consolidators and other financial-services businesses ordered. To get it, they retained high-powered Washington lobbyists, among them Haley Barbour, former chairman of the Republican National Committee, and Lloyd Bentsen, onetime Senator and Treasury Secretary. The price tag for lobbying: more than $5 million.