On Friday, August 23, 2019 President Trump signed H.R. 2938, the “Honoring American Veterans in Extreme Need Act of 2019” or the “HAVEN Act,” into law. HAVEN Act excludes from the calculation of monthly income, for purposes of the Bankruptcy Code’s means test, certain benefits paid by the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense. The law takes effect immediately.
Additionally, the President also signed into law: 1) H.R. 2336, the “Family Farmer Relief Act of 2019”; 2) H.R. 3304, the “National Guard and Reservists Debt Relief Extension Act of 2019”; and 3) H.R. 3311, the “Small Business Reorganization Act of 2019″.
For a quick summary: please see this announcement.
We’ll have the evaluate the specifics of each of these — except for the family farmer — we don’t get many of those in Tampa! Sometimes the title of a bill doesn’t really fit the bill’s contents, but it seems that a Chapter 7 bankruptcy may now be an option for our Vets who have excessive debt, but also have military pensions and other benefits which may have prevented a bankruptcy in the past.