During D.C.’s declared State of Public Health Emergency, several financial protections have been put in place, including some that severely limit, among other things, collection activities relating to consumer contracts, repossession, and legal actions on accounts. On September 1, Mayor Muriel Bowser signed the most recent pair of emergency and temporary legislation to land on her desk, B24-0347 and B24-0348. These bills include a number of provisions impacting collection activities that relate to both third-party debt collectors and creditors collecting their own debts. Since a permanent version of these bills, B24-0357, remains in the Council, the bills signed by the Mayor on September 1 only temporarily amend various provisions of D.C. 28-3814, D.C.’s collections statute.
Before diving into the bills signed last week and the legislation that preceded it, it is important to understand D.C.’s somewhat unique legislative process.
In the District, during a public emergency, the Mayor and the D.C. Council can quickly pass an emergency amendment. (Provided, of course, that the emergency amendment has at least majority support in the Council and is not vetoed by the Mayor.) These emergency amendments require no second reading nor do they go through the required 30-day Congressional review. Emergency amendments last for 90 days. Typically, an emergency amendment and a temporary amendment of the same name are introduced at the same time. Temporary amendments require two readings in the Council and, if passed by the Council, temporary amendments are sent to Congress for a 30-day Congressional review period. If the temporary amendment makes it through the review period, it is considered enacted and has a 225-day lifespan. (It is important to note that days in a Congressional review period are not calendar days or business days, but are instead days when both the Senate and the House are in session.)
View this content by subscribing
Please register to unlock this content
I already have an account. Log in
