Law raises debt limits for bankruptcy filing.
S. 3977 — Bankruptcy Threshold Adjustment Act of 2026 · Filed by Chuck Grassley (R-IA) · 5 cosponsors · Introduced Mar 3, 2026 · Passed chamber
Your members of Congress
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What it does
The bill increases debt limits for bankruptcy filing. People can now file if they owe up to $2.75 million. Small businesses can file if they owe up to $7.5 million. The law does not apply to large companies that report to the government.
Who it affects
Individuals and small businesses with high debt can now use bankruptcy courts. Bankruptcy lawyers and court workers will handle more cases.
One thing to notice
The new debt limits are much higher than before. Mostly wealthier people and larger small businesses will benefit.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
5 cosponsors: 3 Democrats, 2 Republicans.
- Mar 3, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Aug 3, 2026 — Passed the Senate · Congress.gov: “Passed Senate without amendment by Unanimous Consent. (consideration: CR S4412; text: CR S4412)”
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.
Chuck Grassley, who sponsored the bill, received $46,167 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 legal process where people or businesses ask a court to help manage debts.
- 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 (2,132 characters) on Aug 20, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,206 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 2026-09-17.
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