This takes the discretion to consider different factual scenarios away from the bankruptcy judge who is there, potentially arbitrarily diminishing the debtor's right to reorganize, giving leverage to a party who wants to disrupt the process.
Any further extensions come only with the consent of the landlord.
In complex cases where the debtor has many real estate leases such as in retail cases, debtors often cannot determine within 120 days whether there will be a reorganization and just which sites they need. Under the new bill, this provision gives unfair advantage to the landlord, who can now pressure the debtor to prematurely assume or reject a lease. Unsecured creditors are the ones who lose when either a valuable store location is lost because of premature rejection or the landlord's claim gets a higher administrative priority if the lease is prematurely assumed and the reorganization subsequently fails. This provision weakens a retailer's ability to reorganize by constricting the time it has to determine which locations to close or keep open. The small business rules require an expedited time frame, but this expedited process is available if desired by a debtor under current law.