Rick Larsen: “This amendment does one simple thing: It continues the Home Affordable Modification Program for members of the Armed…”

“This amendment does one simple thing: It continues the Home Affordable Modification Program for members of the Armed Forces and Gold Star recipients. Mr. Speaker, we all know the Home Affordable Modification Program has not performed to the original projections, but this is an effort that has provided 600,000 permanent loan modifications. Six hundred thousand American families are still in their homes because of this effort. I doubt these families would tell you it is not working. Mr. Speaker, some will say that terminating this program won't affect those who have already received modifications or are working through a modification currently. Yet many more families still need help, especially military and gold star families. Even though the economy is beginning to recover, the housing market is still struggling. HAMP is currently helping 30,000 additional families every month. I would prefer that we keep this effort going for everyone. But if we are not about to, at a minimum we need to preserve this program for active military and gold star families. Regardless of how anyone feels about the underlying legislation and regardless of how anybody feels about the funding for the original legislation, we can all agree that we owe our men and women in uniform a tremendous debt of gratitude for their service and sacrifice.…”