Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, my amendment to H.R. 5326 would fully fund the Department of Justice's financial and mortgage fraud enforcement activities as well as the new Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities Working Group. In announcing this initiative during the State of the Union, President Obama said that the new unit will ``hold accountable those who broke the law, speed assistance to homeowners, and help turn the page on an era of recklessness that hurt so many Americans.'' President Obama recognized that additional resources were needed to prosecute crimes against homeowners and mortgage investors. Since the start of the financial crisis of 2008, there have been 3.5 million foreclosures. While it's clear that there was extensive fraud in the origination and securitization of mortgage loans, these cases were complicated and time consuming. Without a coordinated task force with significant resources, the greatest crime in the history of our housing market will go unpunished. However, so far, the RMBS Working Group is off to a slow start. The RMBS Working Group cochair, New York Attorney General Schneidermann, all but affirmed my concerns when he essentially admitted to the Congressional Progressive Caucus during a special public forum that the RMBS Working Group does not yet have the resources it needs to establish a robust infrastructure commensurate with the charge of investigating the 2008 financial crisis.…”