Homeowners in need will be better served if we actually identify the root causes of foreclosures and craft effective solutions rather than simply implementing policies to counteract what we think is the problem.

Clearly, this is a regrettable policy failure.

We share your frustration with the slow pace of efforts to help homeowners get out of bad mortgages and into mortgages that will allow them to stay in their homes and build equity at the same time.

But whatever we say or do policywise, or you implement the policy, if the market doesn't respond to it favorably, it is not going to work, is it?

It is going to be difficult to deal with, isn't it?

In many ways, I believe that this hearing could begin to put the horse back in front of the cart by undertaking some of the investigative work necessary to properly address the issues surrounding the housing market in this country.

Without a huge haircut--Senator Dodd was talking about reducing it down to something people can pay, realistically afford--aren't we wasting our time here?

Two-and-a-half years.

People like Donna didn't deserve to lose their homes. Neither do the 10,000 families that will receive a foreclosure notice today or the 60,000 families in my home state of Connecticut that could find themselves in foreclosure over the…

Financial institutions, as I understand the proposal, will no longer be primarily concerned with discerning and meeting the needs of their customers.

Is your premise basically trying to take risk out of a marketplace? And if there is no risk, there is no marketplace, is there?

The Administration's proposal for a Consumer Financial Protection Agency... results in the Government... deciding which Americans will have access to certain financial products.