[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 344 Introduced in House (IH)]

112th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 344

 Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the States 
      should enact a temporary moratorium on residential mortgage 
                             foreclosures.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              July 8, 2011

 Ms. Kaptur submitted the following resolution; which was referred to 
                  the Committee on Financial Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
 Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the States 
      should enact a temporary moratorium on residential mortgage 
                             foreclosures.

Whereas there are nearly 6,900,000 fewer jobs in the United States economy since 
        the start of the recession;
Whereas, in April 2011, the unemployment rate remains at 9.0 percent, nearly 
        double the unemployment rate of the pre-recession economy;
Whereas the Director of the Congressional Budget Office testified as follows in 
        a Senate hearing on January 28, 2009: ``Challenging conditions seem 
        likely to persist for some time in the housing and mortgage markets as 
        well. Housing sales remain weak, and construction activity continues to 
        decline. With the housing market's large glut of vacant properties, the 
        prices of homes are likely to fall considerably further, pushing the 
        value of more borrowers' homes below the value of their outstanding 
        mortgages. As more of those `underwater' borrowers experience losses of 
        income during the current recession, rates of delinquency and 
        foreclosure on residential mortgage loans are likely to rise further.'';
Whereas the current economic situation began to unfold some time ago and, in 
        fact, the Federal Reserve System first began to supply additional 
        liquidity to credit markets in August 2007, as pressures from losses on 
        mortgage-related assets unexpectedly began to mount;
Whereas many economists today believe that to avoid relapsing into another 
        devastating financial crisis, a key component is the Nation's housing 
        markets and providing necessary changes for our Nation's financial 
        markets;
Whereas the intent of the Troubled Assets Relief Program of the Department of 
        the Treasury, established by the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 
        2008 (Public Law 110-343), was to, in large portion, purchase troubled 
        assets, including securitized mortgages, and to enable banks and other 
        lenders engaged in the mortgage market to engage in mortgage 
        modifications, loan workouts, and other processes designed to stem off 
        the ever-rising tide of foreclosures, and that has not happened to the 
        level necessary to stem the tide of foreclosures and it continues;
Whereas there were nearly 219,000 new foreclosures in April 2011, which is 7,300 
        homes per day;
Whereas it is projected by housing market experts that there are approximately 
        11,000,000 homes in the Nation which are underwater or in foreclosure;
Whereas the United States finds its housing market in a precarious and unstable 
        state, where homeowners' mortgage balances are routinely larger than the 
        current value of their homes and where people are losing their homes at 
        an alarming rate;
Whereas during the Great Depression, the State of Minnesota declared an economic 
        emergency, and enacted a law granting relief in certain cases, ``for 
        inequitable foreclosure of mortgages on real estate and execution sales 
        and for postponing certain others'' (Chapter 339, Laws of Minnesota, 
        1933, page 514);
Whereas the Minnesota statute included provisions that postponed foreclosure 
        sales or extended mortgage redemption, as well as taking actions 
        relating to the jurisdiction of such activities, and the Minnesota 
        statute established a hard and fast deadline of when such relief would 
        end, making the Act temporary in nature;
Whereas this law was challenged in the case Home Building & Loan Association v. 
        Blaisdell, which was argued before the United States Supreme Court in 
        1933, with the Court ruling in 1934 in favor of the Minnesota law;
Whereas there are clear challenges to implementing a nationwide moratorium on 
        mortgage foreclosures, yet this case tells us that the States can take 
        action using the police power of the State; and
Whereas, in this time of instability and uncertainty, with unemployment at 9.0 
        percent for April 2011, a global financial system still reeling from the 
        effects of the recession, a volatile housing market, and our Nation's 
        citizens struggling to balance essential needs of housing, work, and 
        nutrition, it is time that the Nation, through the action of the 
        President of the United States, declare a national foreclosure emergency 
        and State-by-State seek to end the foreclosure crisis: Now, therefore, 
        be it
    Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives 
that--
            (1) the President of the United States should declare a 
        national residential mortgage foreclosure emergency and, 
        through such declaration, encourage the States, by use of their 
        police power, to enact a moratorium on residential mortgage 
        foreclosures similar to the moratorium enacted by the State of 
        Minnesota in 1933 and upheld by the Supreme Court of the United 
        States in Home Building & Loan Association v. Blaisdell (290 
        U.S. 398 (1934)); and
            (2) the States should exercise such power and enact such a 
        moratorium.
                                 <all>