I appreciate that you are here, because here in Prince George's County we really are at the center of the storm in our State.

I was advocating for the use of principal reductions in loan modifications.

This is not enough. The programs that are in existence actually are geared toward people who are already in a state of trouble, and not looking ahead.

For some time I had called for the Troubled Asset Relief Program funds to be used to mitigate foreclosures.

These are policies and financial funding and incentives have to come at the national level, and that's why we also have to deal with issues around federal preemption.

I hope someday legislation will be passed to protect people like us.

It's important to get that--the stories, right from the ground.

We all need to get behind that plan.

The voices of consumers and the voices of civil rights protection need to move away from the kid table to the front table.

I think we all know that people with second homes, people with yachts, real estate speculators and others can currently go into bankruptcy court.

We've also had many cases where we have not been able to make progress, which is why it's essential that we move forward more aggressively on that front.

We need those benchmarks and we really need to tie the productivity in meaningful modifications and by that, I mean principal reductions.

Federal preemption is also inhibiting the solution.

Prince George's County is a vivid example that, right in the backyard of our nation's capital, the foreclosure crisis is here, and growing.

It's essential that we take very firm and strong action at the Federal level.

It shows the enthusiastic support that Mr. Gensler enjoys from the Maryland delegation.

I guess the question on the minds of many consumers is not Dr. Hansen's approach a more direct approach to ameliorating that cost impact on a consumer?

For you, Dr. Ekwurzel, Dr. Hansen has proposed that in order to address the price impact on the consumer, you essentially have a rebate, a 100 percent rebate.