The Senate is scheduled to begin debate on bankruptcy reform legislation Monday when Congress returns from a weeklong recess. If the measure can overcome opposition by leading Democrats such as Sen. Ted Kennedy, of Massachusetts, it is expected to easily clear the House and President Bush could sign it into law in March.

Utah had the nation's fourth-highest number of bankruptcy petitions filed per 1,000 residents in fiscal 2004, trailing Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia, according to the Administrative Office of U.S. Courts.

Last year, 21,342 bankruptcy petitions were filed in the state, a rate of 9.08 per 1,000 residents. When measured per household, Utah's rate of personal bankruptcy is the nation's highest.

Sen. Orrin Hatch is a co-sponsor of the bipartisan measure up for Senate consideration this week and fellow Utah Republican Sen. Bob Bennett intends to support it. A similar version in the House is co-sponsored by Utah GOP congressmen Chris Cannon and Rob Bishop. And Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, recently came out in support of the reform measures as part of the coalition of moderate Democrats he leads known as the Blue Dogs.

"An overhaul of the bankruptcy code is needed to ensure that those with the means to pay at least some of their debts are not able to wipe their debts clean by gaming the system," Matheson and 26 other Democrats wrote in a Feb. 23 letter to House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., urging him to expedite passage. "Allowing bankruptcy to become a financial planning tool rather than a last resort forces many of our constituents who pay their debts to pay for those who do not."

But some Democrats in the Senate are vowing to fight the proposed changes, which would create a "flexible means test" to determine a filer's ability to repay debts.

Instead of being allowed to erase all unpaid bills under Chapter 7 of the federal bankruptcy code, the means test would determine if a filer did indeed have financial resources to repay some or all of the overdue debts by a court-administered schedule under Chapter 13 of the law.

Kennedy has charged that the means test would heap additional lawyers' and accountants' fees on people who legitimately need protection from creditors for overwhelming medical bills or other circumstances beyond their control. Hatch attempted to resolve Kennedy's concerns during a Feb. 17 meeting of the Senate Judiciary Committee by offering to review the means test criteria and the panel cleared the bill by a vote of 12-5 for full Senate consideration.

But Kennedy has said he will seek to amend the bill this week to exempt people with catastrophic medical expenses from the means test. Another Democrat, Sen. Charles Schumer, of New York, also will try to amend the bill to prevent protesters from declaring bankruptcy to avoid paying court-ordered fines. That change could impact anti-abortion activists and Republican leaders have said if Schumer is successful, the change will kill the package just as it did in the previous session of Congress.