Barney Frank: “I would want to stress with regard, for instance, to ability to pay and jeopardizing the right of the homeowner, nothing…”

“I would want to stress with regard, for instance, to ability to pay and jeopardizing the right of the homeowner, nothing in this bill in any way diminishes State remedies regarding ability to pay on prime loans. That's the argument, that we do not deal with the ability to pay on prime loans, et cetera. But the effect of that is that any remedy a State wants to pursue against the originator of the loan or the lender remains unimpeded. So we did want to make that point. And just to say also, with regard to the incentive to charge more, the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Miller) and I discussed that. It will be very clear to anybody by the time this bill becomes law that there is no possibility of anyone being given higher compensation in return for getting people into a more expensive loan. As to preemption, there will be some. There are people who want none at all. I do not think you could have a secondary market if there were no preemption. But we have already, in the manager's amendment, defined it, and I think reassured people that, for instance, fraud, deception, et cetera, that causes arising out of that will not be preempted.”