Hatch Pushes Change to Debt Collection Bill

Debt collectors could phone people any time day or night and charge them high fees if they fail to make good on bounced checks within 30 days under a proposal by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah). Hatch is pushing the measure as an amendment to legislation that would make it harder for people to erase debts through bankruptcy, a proposal that has raised protests from consumer advocates, unions, women’s groups and religious leaders. An aide to Hatch said the proposal was designed to crack down on consumers who abuse the protections from creditor harassment under current law to delay paying what they owe. But Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes of Maryland, the senior Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, said that in many cases consumers whose checks had been stolen were subjected to “harassing collection tactics” in violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.