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WASHINGTON - The Senate unanimously approved legislation early Saturday that would allow individuals who have filed for bankruptcy to continue paying religious tithing and some other charitable contri- butions.
Co-sponsored by Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, the bill was in response to a New York bankruptcy judge's ruling in August that tithes to a church were not allowed for an upper-income couple filing for bankruptcy until they had repaid all of their other creditors, which was expected to take five years.
Until then, the additional money would be paid to the couple's creditors.
"As a rule, I do not like impromptu legislative responses to judicial decisions," Hatch said in a statement. "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."
The bill, passed by the Senate working through Friday night into the early hours of Saturday, was co-sponsored by Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and seeks to clarify that Congress did not mean to prohibit tithes or charitable contributions when it passed bankruptcy-reform legislation last year.
The bill still must pass the House and be signed by the president before it becomes law.
In the New York case, a bankruptcy trustee objected to including $100 a month in tithing payments as part of Frank and Patricia Diagostino's financial obligations when the court was calculating the couple's disposable income.
Judge Robert E. Littlefield Jr. reluctantly accepted the trustee's interpretation, based on the bankruptcy provisions for debtors with an above-median income. The bill listed allowable expenses, such as food and clothing, health care, education and personal safety, but did not include an allowance for charitable contributions like tithing.
"The court does not agree with this awkward, bifurcated congressional framework which makes charitable giving easier for some debtors and not others. Whether tithing is or is not reasonable for a debtor in bankruptcy is for Washington to decide," the judge wrote. "Until Congress amends [the law], the court's hands are tied."
Hatch and Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., had sent a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in September, urging the Justice Department to intervene in the case and clarify what they called a misinterpretation of the law.
Hatch said that when Congress passed bankruptcy reform last year it did not mean to restrict "an individual's religious freedom to tithe."