In order to avoid this problem, could HUD require lenders to set up an escrow account where, as with forward mortgages, property taxes, and insurance are paid out of that account and then added to the mortgage balance?

I look forward to working with my colleagues in both the House and Senate to enact a responsible budget compromise.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) faces many challenges in balancing the goal of strengthening responsible homeownership while minimizing the financial risk to FHA and the taxpayer.

A financially sound FHA is an essential component in the recovery of the housing market.

It's important because it provides mortgage insurance for the construction of multifamily housing, hospitals, healthcare facilities.

The Administration has made several announcements regarding existing housing programs, yet there is much more that must be done to stabilize the housing market and reinvigorate private sector participation.

Eventually, FHA should play a more limited role, in my judgment, in the mortgage market and help encourage the private sector to reassert its primacy.

I remain concerned that we must reform our present housing finance programs, and in doing so, we must remain mindful of the need to limit the exposure of taxpayers to additional financial losses.

What about a situation where a decision not to prosecute would have to have the written concurrence of the JAG officer associated with that decision?

Senator Gillibrand has suggested that we ought to take this out of the chain of command because that is a problem in the prosecution.

I think it is an important one.

I would suggest maybe you want to look at something more specific than tampering with the system.

It just seems to me that one of the most important things is for you all to mean it. To mean it.

I would suggest that this might be an area to, again, get the word out that if the word gets back that somebody is being retaliated against in some way--shunned, ostracized, whatever--that that in itself ought to be, in some way, punishable, not necessarily with a court-martial, but nonjudicial discipline.

My question is the key word you used was 'can.' Should that be 'shall'? In other words, should it be an automatic proposition if the JAG officer disagrees that it goes up, not a further discretionary decision?

There are enough specifications in the UCMJ to address it now.

Should retaliation be an offense? If someone retaliates against someone for reporting, should that, in itself, be some kind of punishable offense?

Until you create some objectivity in the process where there is no bias and influence and prejudice against the victim, the lower-ranking individual in the situation, you are not going to solve this problem.