Today, we hold our seventh hearing on security clearance issues, and I am pleased to say that we have seen tremendous progress throughout the course of our oversight work.

I again want to say thank you to the Committee Members, this Subcommittee, and I want to say thanks to our staff.

It is our responsibility and that of our witnesses today to correct these problems in order to preserve homeownership and provide much needed relief to distressed borrowers.

Borrowers rightly expect their mortgage lenders and servicers to work in good faith to help them keep their homes.

Homeowners are under a tremendous amount of financial stress right now, which is what makes the recent reports of problems within the mortgage servicing industry all the more troubling.

Foreclosure should be servicer's last resort, not its preferred outcome.

We urgently need that funding.

Too many homeowners in our country have faced the threat of foreclosures, and hearing our witnesses here, I think of Hawaii as suffering from this.

We must do more to help distressed borrowers and preserve homeownership.

You also testified that measuring the work output of each work unit would help SSA more accurately measure productivity and direct its resources.

Some of the credit for this work, I want to tell you, is due to Senator Voinovich's sustained focus on the issue.