Scott Garrett: “First of all, I begin by saying I appreciate the sponsor's intent behind the amendment. She and I join in the thought…”

“First of all, I begin by saying I appreciate the sponsor's intent behind the amendment. She and I join in the thought that we need to do all that we possibly can to deal with the terrible situation of the economy right now, and she is right that the subprime issue and the foreclosure issue is at the heart of the housing prices and the heart of the economic crisis that we have right now. The question is, what do we do about it? And the question is, what do we do about it in a manner to help both those people who have been paying on time and also help those people who are perhaps in a difficult situation? The amendment, though, as it's currently written, may have an unintended effect. If you effectively allow for an extended period of moratorium on foreclosure, that may actually have the potential of encouraging people from actually going to the bank to try to work things out. Or maybe it's not encouraging, not just encouraging them enough to do what is appropriate during this period of time. I would ask the gentlelady a question, though. In the form of the amendment, besides the potential policy problems, it would appear that the amendment is flawed technically, and for that reason unworkable.”