The Federal Priority in Insolvency: Proposals for Reform

In 1970, the ABA approved a revised version of its insolvency priority recommendation which is now before the Senate Judiciary Committee as S. 2197, having been introduced by Senator Quentin N. Burdick. “by request,” for the purpose of inviting public comment. The suggestions and criticisms made in the following analysis of the proposal are meant to detract nothing from the great desirability of the reform, for which I have worked for many years, but are intended to facilitate the kind of accommodation to the legitimate interests of the Government that ultimately paved the way for the adoption of the Federal Tax Lien Act of 1966 and which may prove even more essential in this instance when there are not one, but many federal financial agencies with the power, and perhaps the will, to impede enactment.