When they just can't 'get over it'

A tougher new federal bankruptcy law takes effect today. Thanks to Wisconsin Rep. F. Victims Sensenbrenner, people financially devastated by Hurricane Katrina are covered by it, too. Loren Steffey, a business writer for the Houston Chronicle, explains what that means:

Get over it. The words hang like a final insult over the people, as many as 50 a day, who Claude Lightfoot says line the hall outside his office in Metairie, La.

They are the desperate and the destitute, in a financial free-fall, hoping simply for the bitter resolve that comes with hitting rock bottom.

They are Hurricane Katrina's lingering victims, those who suffered the physical damage of the storm and are just beginning to comprehend its economic fallout. In the coming months, their numbers will grow. They always do...

On Monday, new bankruptcy provisions take effect that will make it harder for many to seek court protection from creditors. The change already has prompted a surge of bankruptcies nationwide, from big companies such as Delphi Corp. and Delta Air Lines to the 20,000 individuals who rushed to file last week.

But it's the hurricanes' struggling survivors, such as the desperate queue in Lightfoot's hallway, who may be hardest hit.

The Justice Department waived some of the new provisions, such as mandatory credit counseling, for storm victims, but others remain.

Filers must, for example, produce six months of pay stubs and three years of tax returns. For many of Lightfoot's clients, those documents were destroyed by floodwaters.

A few weeks ago, consumer advocates and bankruptcy lawyers urged Congress to postpone the new law for Katrina victims. Although several lawmakers backed the plan, it was blocked by Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., the law's author.

As Sensenbrenner so eloquently put it, those who wanted the changes "ought to get over it."

Those are the highlights. You can read his entire column here.