Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill) co-sponsored a bill to protect an individual’s right to continue reasonable charitable contributions, including religious tithing, during the course of a consumer bankruptcy. The bill was unanimously approved by the Senate on September 30.

The bill was introduced in response to a recent ruling by a New York bankruptcy court which ruled that a Chapter 13 debtor who earned more than the median income in his state of residence would not be allowed to tithe and instead must include his regular tithes with his disposable income calculation. This disposable income would then go to pay creditors under the debtor’s bankruptcy plan payments. (For further information, please read the Sept. 21, 2006 blog article titled “Tithing and the BAPCPA” on this site, in which we discussed the case at referred to by Sen. Hatch as well as an Arkansas bankruptcy case which analyzed the tithing question.)

A news release from Sen. Hatch’s office http://hatch.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressReleases.Detail&PressRelease_id=1674 states that the New York ruling went against the clear Congressional intent of the Religious Liberties and Charitable Donation Protection Act of 1998 and the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005. Sen. Hatch was a co-sponsor of both laws.

Sen. Hatch said: “As a rule, I do not like impromptu legislative responses to judicial decisions, but the religious practices and beliefs of individuals should not be subject to the whims of judicial interpretation. This bill ensures those who tithe can continue to live their faith while in bankruptcy.”

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