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Renew Today! -- Help Center Annual Spring Meeting | April 23-25 | Washington, DC Register Today View Schedule -- Login * Bookstore ABI Menu Membership Why Join Join Renew Update Profile Committees Membership Directory Discover ABI Education & Events Calendar of Events Bankruptcy 101 Eye On Bankruptcy E-learning Conference Materials Track your CLE/CPE ABI Events App Sponsors & Exhibitors Newsroom Headlines Rochelle Daily Wire Legislative News Statistics Press Releases Videos Podcasts Supreme Court Puerto Rico In Distress ABI Journal Current Issue Archived Issues Journal Topics Journal Columns Submission Guidelines and Deadlines ABI Journal App Journal Authors Advertise Member Resources Ch.11 Commission Consumer Commission Veterans Task Force Law Volo Global Insolvency Opinions ABI Law Review ABI Blog Exchange Endowment Ways to Give Endowment Committees Newsletters Resident Scholars Contributors Research Grants Store About Us Leadership Partners Annual Reports Career Opportunities Conference Center Rentals Contact Us Bankruptcy Headlines U.S. House Passes $484 Billion Coronavirus Bill in Latest Relief Package The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a $484 billion coronavirus relief bill yesterday, funding small businesses and hospitals and pushing the total spending response to the crisis to an unprecedented near $3 trillion, Reuters reported. The measure passed the Democratic-led House by a vote of 388-5, with one member voting present. House members were meeting for the first time in weeks because of the coronavirus pandemic. Lawmakers, many wearing masks, approved the bill during an extended period of voting intended to allow them to remain at a distance from one another in line with public health recommendations. The House action sent the latest of four relief bills to the White House. Republican President Donald Trump, who backs the measure, said he would probably sign it into law on Thursday evening. The $484 billion aid bill was the fourth passed to address the coronavirus crisis. It replenishes funds to small businesses and provides hospitals struggling with the economic toll of a pandemic that has killed almost 50,000 people in the United States and thrown 26 million out of work, wiping out all the jobs created during the longest employment boom in U.S. history. Read more . In related news, a Reuters analysis of Small Business Administration data shows Utah, along with heartland manufacturing powers and key political battlegrounds like Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, punched above their weight in the race to get loans from the $349 billion “Payroll Protection Program” that ran out of money in under two weeks. A comparison of local industry mix and payroll against national averages signals that important sectors in a handful of places — manufacturing in the heartland of the country, construction and oil and gas in the West — mobilized quickly and helped their states receive billions of dollars more than otherwise expected. Utah, for example, received about $600 million in SBA loans beyond what would have occurred if its firms had borrowed at national averages. In Indiana, with a heavy manufacturing presence, small businesses overall received about $1.2 billion more than if their industries had borrowed the same share of payroll as national firms. Read more . Read more about U.S. House Passes $484 Billion Coronavirus Bill in Latest Relief Package Congress Braced for a Bruising Fight Over Next Virus Relief Bill Congress has pumped out almost $3 trillion to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, mostly on a bipartisan basis. But there is a bruising election-year confrontation ahead over the next, and perhaps final, round of aid for the economy, Bloomberg News reported. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is gathering a long and expensive wish list from her fellow Democrats that would expand the social safety net as well as provide $500 billion to struggling state and local governments. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) hasn’t yet committed to another big aid package and indicated that he’s girding for a massive fight over aid to states, a central issue for Democrats. He and other Republicans also say they want to tap the brakes on the blistering pace of new deficit spending. The next phase of economic stimulus likely will be the last before the 2020 elections, and any stalemate will escalate the political consequences with control of the Senate, House and White House at stake. Read more about Congress Braced for a Bruising Fight Over Next Virus Relief Bill J.C. Penney in Advanced Talks for Bankruptcy Financing J.C. Penney Co. Inc. is in advanced talks for bankruptcy funding with a group of lenders, a sign the troubled retailer is about to succumb to the economic collapse caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the Wall Street Journal reported. Penney is in discussions with existing lenders including Wells Fargo & Co., Bank of America Corp. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. for a debtor-in-possession loan that would keep the department-store chain’s operations funded during a court-supervised bankruptcy. The loan package could total roughly $800 million to $1 billion, with some of that money potentially including existing debt. The facility would likely be syndicated so that other lenders could participate. A bankruptcy filing could take place within the next few weeks. The company entered into a 30-day grace period after missing an interest payment due to bondholders on April 15. It is possible creditors enter into a forbearance agreement if the company needs additional time to iron out negotiations before filing. Read more about J.C. Penney in Advanced Talks for Bankruptcy Financing The Growing Worry for Bondholders: Getting 'Primed' Bondholders in particularly hard-hit sectors like energy, travel and leisure have another issue to watch for as companies struggle to survive the economic shutdown — getting demoted by new debt issues, Reuters reported. This phenomenon is known in the market as getting “primed” or “layered,” where a company in need of cash offers a bond backed by collateral (secured debt), which has seniority over any previously issued unsecured debt. Being at the top of the capital structure means that in a bankruptcy those investors get paid back first. Since the start of the coronavirus epidemic, this has happened to investors in the debt of movie theater chain AMC Entertainment, theme parks Six Flags Entertainment and Cedar Fair, propane supplier Ferrellgas Partners and cruise line Carnival Corp., according to a Reuters analysis. Of the new issues currently trading, all are priced far higher than where the remainder of the company’s debt is trading. Read more about The Growing Worry for Bondholders: Getting 'Primed' Borden Dairy Floats Merger With Bankrupt Milk Processor Dean Foods Borden Dairy Co. and Dean Foods Co. bondholders want to merge the two bankrupt dairy companies, proposing an alternative to Dean’s pending merger with a major U.S. dairy cooperative, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Dean, the top U.S. milk processor by sales, is racing to ease antitrust concerns around its proposed tie-up with cooperative Dairy Farmers of America Inc. and to close their $433 million merger. The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that Justice Department antitrust officials were nearing a settlement with DFA that would let the acquisition move forward. The Borden bid, put forth in Dean’s court-supervised bankruptcy on Thursday, is positioned as an alternative transaction in the event the DFA deal is rejected. DFA won court approval earlier this month to buy the bulk of Dean’s assets out of bankruptcy, subject to clearance from the Justice Department. Antitrust authorities have been examining for months the potent...