Austin Scott: “Mr. Speaker, I stand here with 100 percent support for H.R. 3915. Let me just start off my comments by sharing with you…”

“Mr. Speaker, I stand here with 100 percent support for H.R. 3915. Let me just start off my comments by sharing with you and the Members of the House and the people of this country how severe this issue within the mortgage industry is, particularly within my district and my beloved State of Georgia. We are one of the leading States that have been victims of abusive lending practices, predatory lending, and certainly we are at the epicenter of this mortgage crisis facing us in this country. For example, Mr. Speaker, 40 percent of the loans in my district are in the subprime area. Homeowners in my district have lost $159 million in home equity value. One of the counties in my district, Clayton County, is one the leading counties in this State that has suffered so desperately from home foreclosures due to subprime lending, abuses within the lending practice, and certainly the epicenter of it all, the eye of the storm, is predatory lending. My State of Georgia has been fighting this battle for an awfully long time.”