The sun has set. Yes it has.

The $7,500,000 eligibility limit for Subchapter V expired yesterday (March 28, 2022), without action by Congress to extend it.

Actually, the Subchapter V sun was set to set on March 27—but that’s a Sunday. So let’s give the benefit of the doubt and say it expired on Monday, instead.

Either way, the heightened debt limit is gone.

Hopefully, Congress can pass the heightened limit anew, after its expiration. Then, perhaps, we can be in a no-harm, no-foul mode, with no ill-effects to anyone. But that remains to be seen.

On March 15, 2022, the Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico announced that the Plan of Adjustment for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico became effecfive, more than four years aher Puerto Rico commenced restructuring proceedings under Title III of the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management and Economic Stability Act (“PROMESA”). PROMESA is a bespoke piece of federal legislafion enacted in 2016 to address Puerto Rico’s debt crisis, and incorporates most of chapter 9 of the Bankruptcy Code.

A key bankruptcy-related response to the pandemic has ended as the increased debt limits under subchapter V of chapter 11, passed by Congress in the CARES Act, have expired. In an effort to provide bankruptcy relief and access to subchapter V of chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code to a greater number of small businesses, Congress raised the debt limit for subchapter V eligibility from the original $2,725,625 million to $7.5 million via the CARES Act, passed in March of 2020.

Here’s a vindication for the Small Business Administration’s discrimination against bankruptcy debtors:

As a result of recent high profile Chapter 11 cases, such as Purdue Pharma and Johnson & Johnson, there has been great Congressional and media attention to controversial Chapter 11 practices. These include debtors’ forum and judge shopping, nonconsensual third-party releases of nondebtors in the Plan of Reorganization, and the use of divisional mergers to isolate liabilities into special purpose entities.

In 2021, to address these concerns, two bills were introduced in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives:

Agricultural economists have long warned of a looming farm crisis. However, for the most part, they have been wrong. In 2021, nationwide Chapter 12 family farmer bankruptcy filings were at second lowest level since Chapter 12 was enacted in 1987. The low level of Chapter 12 filings is all the more surprising given that Congress more than doubled the debt limit for Chapter 12 eligibility (to $10 million) in 2019.

Overview

Supreme Court to Resolve Circuit Split on Constitutionality of U.S. Trustee Fee Hike

After more than a decade, litigation resulting from the failed leveraged buyout (LBO) of media giant Tribune Company has finally drawn to a close. On Feb. 22, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the latest decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in In re Tribune Co. Fraudulent Conveyance Litig., 10 F.4th 147 (2d Cir.

The US Supreme Court tends to hear a couple of bankruptcy cases per term. Most of these cases deal with interpreting provisions of the Bankruptcy Code. However, every few years or so, the Supreme Court decides a constitutional issue in bankruptcy. Some are agita-inducing (Northern Pipeline, Stern), some less so (Katz). The upcoming case is a little more nuanced, but could have major consequences.