Watson Coleman: “I congratulate the majority and minority leaders, the chairman of the Banking Committee, Senator Dodd, and Senator…”

“I congratulate the majority and minority leaders, the chairman of the Banking Committee, Senator Dodd, and Senator Shelby. We have done something today the American people should be very proud of. I understand there is an agreement to move forward on a bipartisan agreement that would allow us to address certainly one of the major concerns impacting the American public today; that is, the collapse of the housing industry, collapse of home values. I believe this ties directly into the difficulties we are having with our economy. The fact is, there is less value in homes and the ability to refinance. Folks are not fixing up their homes, doing renovations. In my State, folks who cut down the timber, log it, truck it, process it through sawmills, ultimately the contractors, the construction workers who build, all have been impacted. When one person loses a house and a series of homes are lost through foreclosures due to refixing of mortgages, adjustable rate mortgages which people do not have the capacity to repay, that impacts the value of every home in a neighborhood. So we are seeing a significant decline in many of our neighborhoods, not just urban but throughout the State and the country. I congratulate the leadership of my colleagues who have come together with an opportunity to move forward in an area of great importance and one that I, as a former mayor and with the privilege now to serve in the Senate, understand and am deeply concerned about.”