Senate leaders remain stymied in their efforts to successfully move the Bankruptcy Reform Act of 2000.

Senior White House officials met with Senate leaders on July 18 in an effort to find a compromise to the problems identified with the consumer provisions in the bill, identified in the president's June 29 letter.

The number of days left in the 106th Congress are few. Congress is out of session during August and does not return until after Labor Day, leaving less than a month before an early October adjournment sine die. Typically, few controversial bills are considered in the last days of a session leading up to a national election.

The Senate allowed chapter 12 to expire on July 1. In June, the House passed a three-month extension until Oct. 1. The pending bill (H.R. 4718) provides for retroactive coverage to June 30. However, Congress will have to extend the law well into 2001, as the 107th Congress will not convene until late January.

Also hanging in the balance are a host of other provisions (e.g., additional bankruptcy judges, transnational bankruptcies, treatment of certain financial transactions) on which there is agreement, but they will not pass without an agreement on the larger bill.