Page:United States Reports 502 OCT. TERM 1991.pdf/315

 502us1$13Z 08-21-96 15:26:37 PAGES OPINPGT

Cite as: 502 U. S. 151 (1991)

157

Opinion of the Court

did not substitute a comparable limitation. See Bankruptcy Amendments and Federal Judgeship Act of 1984, Pub. L. 98– 353, § 462(c), 98 Stat. 378. Respondent contends that this amendment was intended to satisfy complaints by issuers of commercial paper 10 and by trade creditors 11 that regularly extended credit for periods of more than 45 days. Furthermore, respondent continues, there is no evidence in the legislative history that Congress intended to make the ordinary course of business exception available to conventional long-term lenders. Therefore, respondent argues, we should follow the analysis of the Ninth Circuit and read § 547(c)(2) as protecting only short-term debt payments. Cf. In re CHG Int’l, 897 F. 2d, at 1484. We need not dispute the accuracy of respondent’s description of the legislative history of the 1984 amendment in order to reject his conclusion. For even if Congress adopted the payments because of the possibility that a debtor’s otherwise avoidable payment was made within 45 days of the date the long-term loan was made. 10 Because payments to a commercial paper purchaser within 90 days prior to bankruptcy may be preferential transfers under § 547(b), a purchaser could be assured that the payment would not be avoided under the prior version of § 547(c)(2) only if the commercial paper had a maturity of 45 days or less. Commercial issuers thus complained that the 45-day limitation lowered demand for commercial paper with a maturity in excess of 45 days. See Hearings on S. 3023 before the Subcommittee on Judicial Machinery of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, 96th Cong., 2d Sess., 8–27 (1980) (statements of George Van Cleave, partner, Goldman, Sachs & Co., and James Ledinsky, Senior Vice President, A. G. Becker & Co.). 11 Trade creditors stated that normal payment periods in many industries exceeded 45 days and complained that the arbitrary 45-day limitation in § 547(c)(2) deprived these trade creditors of the protection of the ordinary course of business exception to the trustee’s power to avoid preferential transfers. See, e. g., Hearings on Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1978 before the Subcommittee on Courts of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, 97th Cong., 1st Sess., 259–260 (1981) (statement of Vyto Gestautas on behalf of the National Association of Credit Management).