A Proposal to Abolish the Office of United States Trustee

In this Article, Professor Alexander reviews the creation and development of the Office of U.S. Trustee, an agency within the executive branch of the federal government, authorized to oversee the administration of all bankruptcy estates. Alexander asserts that the agency has expanded its scope beyond its original mission, becoming a huge bureaucracy that is widely criticized. By contrast, Alexander also discusses the Bankruptcy Administrator Program, a bankruptcy oversight system that exists within the federal districts in Alabama and North Carolina. He presents the positive and negative comments about that program and concludes that it is a more efficient system than the U.S. Trustee Program. Lastly, Alexander proposes his own model for bankruptcy case oversight, one that combines private trustees and a decentralized management structure, as a substitute for either the U.S. Trustee Program or the Bankruptcy Administrator Program.