Congress raises debt limits for bankruptcy filing.
H.R. 7730 — Bankruptcy Threshold Adjustment Act · Filed by Ben Cline (R-VA) · 6 cosponsors · Introduced Feb 26, 2026 · Passed both chambers
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What it does
This bill raises debt limits for bankruptcy. Small businesses can now file if they owe up to $7.5 million. People filing for Chapter 13 can now file if they owe up to $2.75 million. Chapter 13 is a plan to repay debts over time. The bill lets more businesses and people use bankruptcy courts.
Who it affects
Small businesses with high debts can now file for bankruptcy. People with large debts who want to repay them can now file for Chapter 13. Creditors and debt collectors may be affected.
One thing to notice
The bill does not say what the old debt limits were. We cannot tell from the text how much more access the bill creates.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
6 cosponsors: 3 Democrats, 3 Republicans.
- Feb 26, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Feb 26, 2026 — Referred to House Committee on the Judiciary · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary”
- Mar 26, 2026 — Markup held in committee · Congress.gov: “Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held”
- Mar 26, 2026 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Ordered to be Reported (Amended) by Voice Vote”
- Sep 16, 2026 — Passed the House · Congress.gov: “On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended Agreed to by voice vote”
- Sep 16, 2026 — Floor vote scheduled · Congress.gov: “Mr. Cline moved to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended”
- Sep 28, 2026 — Passed both chambers · Congress.gov: “Passed Senate without amendment by Unanimous Consent. (consideration: CR S5123)”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
2 groups reported lobbying about this bill. They filed 2 reports from Jun 2026 to Jun 2026.
Those reports show $480,000 in lobbying spending. Each report lists about 10 bills. So that money was not all for this bill.
More groups named this bill than 41% of bills with any report.
Ben Cline, who sponsored the bill, received $666,776 from PACs for the 2026 election.
- International Council of Shopping Centers — $460,000 in 1 report
- National Association of Bankruptcy Trustees — $20,000 in 1 report
Lobbying is legal. These reports show who lobbied about this bill, not what changed.
Words to know
- bankruptcy — A court process where a person or business with too much debt gets help managing or erasing what they owe.
- Chapter 13 — A type of bankruptcy where a person keeps their property and pays back debts over time.
- creditors — People or companies that lent money or provided goods and are owed payment.
- lobbying — Trying to influence lawmakers about a bill. Companies and groups pay people to do this.
- PACs — Groups that collect money and give it to candidates for office.
- sponsored — To sponsor a bill is to introduce it in Congress and put your name on it.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (2,253 characters) on Jul 9, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,928 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-11-03.
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