Vermont Attorney Lawyer

A lobbying campaign led by credit card companies and banks that gave millions of dollars in political donations to members of Congress and contributed generously to President Bush’s 2000 campaign is close to its long- sought goal of overhauling the nation’s bankruptcy system.

Legislation that would make it harder for people to wipe out their debts could be passed by the Senate as early as this week. The bill has already been approved by the House, and Mr. Bush has pledged to sign it.

Sponsors of the bill acknowledge that lawyers and lobbyists for the banks and credit card companies were involved in drafting it. The bill gives those industries most of what they have wanted since they began lobbying in earnest in the late 1990’s, when the number of personal bankruptcies rose to record levels.

In his final weeks in office, President Bill Clinton vetoed an identical bill, describing it as too tough on debtors. But with the election of Mr. Bush and other candidates who received their financial support, the banks and credit card industries saw an opportunity to quickly resurrect the measure.

In recent weeks, their lawyers and lobbyists have jammed Congressional hearing rooms to overflowing as the bill was redebated and reapproved. During breaks, there was a common, almost comical pattern. The pinstriped lobbyists ran into the hallway, grabbed tiny cell phones from their pockets or briefcases and reported back to their clients, almost always with the news they wanted to hear.

“Where money goes, sometimes you see results,” acknowledged Representative George W. Gekas, a Pennsylvania Republican who was a sponsor of the bill in the House. But Mr. Gekas said that political contributions did not explain why most members of Congress and Mr. Bush appeared ready to overhaul the bankruptcy system.

“People are gaming this system,” Mr. Gekas said, describing the bill as an effort to end abuses by people who are declaring bankruptcy to wipe out their debts even though they have the money to pay them. “We need bankruptcy reform.”

Among the biggest beneficiaries of the measure would be MBNA Corporation of Delaware, which describes itself as the world’s biggest independent credit card company. Ranked by employee donations, MBNA was the largest corporate contributor to the Bush campaign, according to a study by the Center for Responsive Politics, an election research group.

MBNA’s employees and their families contributed about $240,000 to Mr. Bush, and the chairman of the company’s bank unit, Charles M. Cawley, was a significant fund-raiser for Mr. Bush and gave a $1,000-a- plate dinner in his honor, the center said. After Mr. Bush’s election, MBNA pledged $100,000 to help pay for inaugural festivities.

MBNA was obviously less enthusiastic about the candidacy of former Vice President Al Gore, Mr. Bush’s Democratic rival; according to the center, only three of the company’s employees gave money to the Gore campaign, and their donations totaled $1,500.

The center found that of MBNA’s overall political contributions of $3.5 million in the last election, 86 percent went to Republicans, 14 percent to Democrats. The company, which did not return phone calls for comment, made large donations to the Senate campaign committees of both political parties — $310,000 to the Republicans, $200,000 to the Democrats.

MBNA’s donations were part of a larger trend within the finance and credit card industries, which have widely expanded their contributions to federal candidates as they stepped up their lobbying efforts for a bankruptcy overhaul.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the industries’ political donations more than quadrupled over the last eight years, rising from $1.9 million in 1992 to $9.2 million last year, two-thirds of it to Republicans.