[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 142 (Thursday, September 22, 2011)]
[House]
[Pages H6348-H6349]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          HOUSING FORECLOSURES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Washington (Mr. McDermott) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Madam Speaker, I'm taking the floor today to talk 
about foreclosures.
  The problem of housing foreclosures in this country continues to be 
one of the central reasons our economy is not moving forward. While a 
lot of this economic wreckage is avoidable, this Congress continues to 
fiddle while the American housing market burns. Families across this 
country are being tossed out in the street, and many of them don't need 
to be--and we can help them. We can help fix the housing market so that 
millions of American families can stay in their homes and others can 
have a smooth transition into renting. We could help, but this Congress 
is doing nothing.
  Millions of homeowners are suffering through the worst recession in 
100 years, and the Republican majority is not doing one single thing to 
help them. Just look at this map next to me. This is a snapshot of 
foreclosures across this country. The dark red areas are where the 
worst places are, but you see it covers everybody in the country.
  Now, there isn't a district that isn't affected by this crisis. The 
housing market doesn't care about your politics. Three years after the 
Wall Street meltdown, millions of Americans are still facing 
foreclosure. One in four homeowners in this country is underwater, and 
home prices continue to drop.
  While the housing market continues to steadily destruct and millions 
of Americans are needlessly pushed into poverty, this Congress isn't 
doing anything to stop it. Instead of fixing the economy, today we're 
going to debate a bill--a Republican bill--that attacks public health 
and children. The Republican priority is not foreclosures. It is to 
make sure that every American is breathing more mercury and toxins.
  When the Democrats were in charge, it was different. We thought you 
should be able to write down mortgage principal in bankruptcy and 
modify mortgages more easily and get lenders to the bargaining table to 
avoid foreclosure. But the last Congress, Republican Senators stopped 
all that. And in this Congress, the Republicans in the House want to 
make sure we don't do anything. Instead, they cut programs for 
foreclosures and cut affordable housing. Instead of taking actions, 
Republicans say the market will fix it. In the market we trust. Not in 
God we trust, but in the market we trust that everything will be 
better.
  But we're losing. We're long past a healthy correction. The damage 
being done is completely unavoidable. Make no mistake, Republican 
economic philosophy is pushing millions of Americans into the street, 
middle class Americans.
  It's important to remember it was the banks that caused this crisis. 
Well, we bailed out the banks, and how did they thank the American 
people for the bailout? The banks went into foreclosure overdrive. They 
robo-signed foreclosures and filed fraudulent documents as fast as they 
could.
  FDR once said, ``take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it 
frankly, and try another. But by all means, try something.'' And we can 
act. By just reducing the principal on all underwater homes to fair 
market value, $71 billion would be injected into the economy. Every 
homeowner would save about $6,500 a year in payments, and millions of 
new jobs would be created.

[[Page H6349]]

  Banks are still sitting on $1 trillion in cash. By using 7 percent of 
that money, there would be millions of people kept out of poverty. The 
banks can afford it and it would be something we seem to have lost all 
sight of in Congress--it would be fair. We can restart the economy by 
helping homeowners. We can come out of this economic crisis by putting 
responsible homeowners on solid ground. The map says it all. Homeowners 
are struggling in every district of every Member of this Congress.
  We can fix this foreclosure disaster. We can help American families 
who play by the rules. We could start action today and help the middle 
class. But, no, what are we going to do? We are going to fool around 
out here about the rules of the EPA that protect people against toxins 
and mercury.
  This Congress has lost its way and it needs a change. And it's going 
to come, because all those people who are in foreclosure in this 
country when the next election comes are going to ask, ``What did the 
Republicans in the House do?'' And the answer is, ``Nothing.''

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