Coalition condemns Senate retreat on bankruptcy; Brown will try to add it back
In response to bankruptcy measures that would help more than half a million families being dropped for the Senate housing package, the following 15 civil rights, consumer and housing groups - Center for Responsible Lending, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, ACORN, American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, Consumer Action, Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc., National Association of Consumer Advocates (NACA), National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys, National Association of Neighborhoods, National Community Reinvestment Coalition, National Council of La Raza, National Fair Housing Alliance - issued a joint statement:
“At a time when Congress and the Administration urgently need to take significant action to combat record-high foreclosures and home depreciation, the Senate today chose to ignore the most effective solution. Lawmakers decided to exclude a provision that would allow courts to modify unaffordable mortgages, a provision that without any cost to taxpayers would help stabilize communities and prevent up to 600,000 additional families facing foreclosure. This missed opportunity is regrettable. Keeping it out of proposed legislation was a win for the financial services industry that brought us this mess and, in so doing, brought the country to the brink of recession. This is a loss not only for ordinary homeowners, but for us all, since today’s Senate bill would allow massive and preventable foreclosures to continue weakening the entire economy.”…
Press release yesterday from Sherrod Brown:
U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), a member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, today on a news conference call urged the administration and Republicans in Congress to do more to help Main Street through this crisis…
Brown today said he would work to improve the Dodd-Shelby bill on the Senate floor by pushing for the inclusion of the bankruptcy provision and an additional $100 million for housing counseling.
In his press release today, Senator Voinovich has nothing but praise for the Dodd-Shelby bill because, um, he seems to be personally responsible for most of it (apparently none of the other Senators realized that foreclosure prevention programs and cities need more money) and it “steers clear of the sort of irresponsible provisions included in previous bills which would have raised interest rates on hard-working Americans”. Irresponsible provisions like making home mortages subject to bankruptcy restructuring, I presume.
Some information that may help explain Senator Voinovich’s position on the bankruptcy issue, courtesy of opensecrets.org:
