Housing Foreclosure Crisis

HOUSING FORECLOSURE CRISIS -- (House of Representatives - May 06, 2008)

(Ms. KAPTUR asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)

Ms. KAPTUR. Madam Speaker, Federal Chairman Ben Bernanke says Congress should do more to address the housing foreclosure crisis. I agree.

However, let me respectfully suggest to the Fed Chairman that he, too, can do much more to help. Let him use his considerable power to bring to the table the very big banks that aren't coming to do foreclosure workouts at the local level. They just happen to be the firms the Fed has been rewarding handsomely by injecting billions and billions of dollars to rescue them. You know the names: Citigroup, J.P. Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Wachovia.

Firms like Countrywide don't even show up when borrowers at the local level try to renegotiate their loans. Yet, the Federal Reserve has been rewarding them by putting them on their list of select primary dealers. Fancy that.

So, Mr. Bernanke, let me help you out. Here's a list of the firms you can invite right now. They're not responding to Ohioans witnessing foreclosure: Countrywide, Chase Mortgage, Citifinancial, GMAC, HSBC, Sovereign Bank, Indy Mac Bank, Popular Mortgage, Nova Star, Saxon Mortgage Services, Option One Mortgage, EMC Mortgage, ASC Servicing, HomeEq, Wilshire, Nationstar, Equifirst, Litton Loan, Flagstar.

Let's be honest. These mega firms are holding the levers of power over our homeowners. It's time the scales of justice had balance restored on behalf of our people.

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