Bob Menendez

It seems to me that taking the view... only... can only come by either payment or foreclosure misses a tremendous opportunity to preserve.

I have been pushing Freddie and Fannie to, in one case, allow refinancing to take place.

Is that, in part, why you talked about aligning servicer standards with--servicers' incentives with seeking remediation and----

I have a billion-dollar set-aside for full faith and credit of the United States for CDFIs.

So if we marketed it and had a lot more influx, how would we meet the challenge of----

We are hoping that the different groups that we have met with without having hearings, including groups of her sort...

I think this is a crisis.

I agree that it is the role of the conservator to try to preserve as much of the Federal money that exists.

It is appalling from a policy standpoint that the Federal Government would take the position that they have no obligation to maintain the properties which they are legally responsible for.

It boggles the imagination why you would make an investment decision that you can affect the outcome of and not want that decision to pay off.

Moral hazard is also for those who created the lending products and drove people to mortgages they should have never been.

One of the suggestions you have that is of interest to me, that the counselor have direct access to the lender.

New Jersey is the only State in the country that has a State law that puts the clear obligation on the lender that has initiated foreclosure to maintain the property during the foreclosure process.

I believe we also need to have a discussion about what other opportunities there exist

While the $26 billion settlement helps homeowners, it is a long way from healing the grievous wounds left by the crisis.

Well, my thanks to all of you for some very, very worthwhile and helpful insights.

So, really, what the problem is is that the person who the counselor may be speaking to on the phone is not the person who is going to make the decision about whether that loan modification is approved or not.

We cannot continuously go back to Washington because you are doing the best you can.

We need legislation that is essentially a 'use it or lose it' bill.

Lowering and reducing principals is also an essential part of keeping folks in their homes.

Thank you for the insights.

I think Fannie and Freddie have to be reformed, but they do not have to be abolished.

We support the Senator's advocacy for experimenting with different approaches to disposing of foreclosed properties.

Thank you for your bill.

We need to make that our top rod.