Political Quotes

“shortly, I hope we will be able to clear my amendment No. 2832, which deals with mitigation assistance to eliminate the default and foreclosure of mortgages of owner-occupied single family homes. As we all know, the subprime market collapse has caused great distress in the marketplace and in many of the entities that are engaged in issuing these subprime loans, and others, including hedge funds, which were dealing in the secondary market with them. I am not so much concerned if large institutions made bad gambles. We don't want to engage in the moral hazard of bailing out large financial institutions that get out too far on the fringe and find out that interest rates rise and they can't make the profits they thought. But we are very much concerned about the individual homeowners who may find that this subprime crisis is costing them their housing. Therefore, this amendment we propose would take $100 million from the HOME program within HUD to allow for foreclosure mitigation activities. The amount would go to organizations such as FHA, Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation, and State Housing Finance agencies to help identify foreclosure alternatives and offer some homeowners, specifically in subprime mortgages, an alternative to the prospect of foreclosure. Recently published data from the Mortgage Bankers Association for the second quarter of this year shows that one in seven U.S. homeowners was delinquent in their payments.”