[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 94 (Wednesday, June 20, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4372-S4373]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. ROCKEFELLER (for himself and Mr. Cardin):
  S. 3323. A bill to amend the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act to 
improve the protections for servicemembers against mortgage 
foreclosures, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Veterans' 
Affairs.
  Mr. ROCKEFELLER. Mr. President, today I introduce the Military Family 
Home Protection Act, a bill to strengthen the legal protections our 
military personnel are guaranteed under the Servicemembers Civil Relief 
Act, SCRA.

[[Page S4373]]

  Entering military service can sometimes make it difficult or 
impossible for our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines to meet their 
civilian legal and financial obligations. In laws dating back to the 
Civil War, Congress has given active-duty military personnel special 
protections against legal actions that might be taken against them 
while they are away from home because of military service. The purpose 
of these laws, according to a 1943 Supreme Court decision, is ``to 
protect those who have been obliged to drop their own affairs to take 
up the burden of the nation.'' Congress re-wrote the World War II-era 
``Soldiers and Sailor Relief Act'' in 2003, as full-time military, 
Reservists, and National Guard personnel were deploying in large 
numbers to Iraq and Afghanistan. This comprehensively updated statute 
was re-named the ``Servicemembers Civil Relief Act.''
  Since the September 11 attacks, we have asked our military 
personnel--both our active-duty and reserve components--for 
unprecedented service and sacrifice. We have asked them to deploy 
multiple times to Iraq and Afghanistan, and we have asked their 
families to live without their loved ones for long periods of time. We 
have asked our National Guard and Reserve personnel--not just once, but 
sometimes two or three times--to leave their jobs, put their civilian 
lives on hold, and answer their country's call to service. The promise 
the SCRA makes to these Americans is that while they are engaged in the 
defense of our country, we will protect them and their families from 
adverse financial actions on the home front. One important way the SCRA 
protects these servicemembers is by lowering their mortgage interest 
rates while they are on active duty, and by prohibiting banks from 
foreclosing on their homes without first getting court approval.
  Unfortunately, as I learned during a joint House-Senate forum I held 
in the Senate Commerce Committee hearing room in July 2011, not all 
banks have been following the law. In May 2011, for example, the 
Department of Justice settled lawsuits with the former Countrywide Home 
Loans, now a subsidiary of Bank of America, and Saxon Mortgage, a 
subsidiary of Morgan Stanley, for $22 million. In these lawsuits, DOJ 
alleged that the companies violated the SCRA by foreclosing on more 
than 170 servicemembers without court orders. At the House-Senate 
forum, which I organized with Representative Elijah Cummings, the 
Ranking Member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, 
we heard from two members of the military and other experts about how 
these SCRA violations can devastate military families. Mrs. Holly 
Petraeus, who is the Director of Servicemember Affairs at the Consumer 
Financial Protection Bureau, as well as the wife of General David 
Petraeus, told us that:

       . . . [W]hile a foreclosure is devastating for any American 
     family, it can be especially painful for military families. 
     Both the family back home and the deployed servicemember, who 
     feels helpless to take action to prevent the foreclosure, are 
     put in a terrible situation. It is vital that servicemembers 
     receive all the protections afforded to them by the SCRA.

  At the time we held this forum, legislators in both houses were 
already hard at work on legislation to strengthen the SCRA and improve 
banks' compliance with the SCRA. In late 2010, Congress passed a new 
law, P.L. 111 275, that allowed deploying soldiers to terminate their 
cell phone contracts without penalties, and that gave the United States 
Attorney General new powers to enforce the SCRA against creditors. In 
June 2011, the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, on which I serve, 
approved a bill sponsored by Senator Begich, S. 941, which included a 
provision to extend the period of SCRA mortgage protections from nine 
months to twelve months after a servicemember leaves military duty. The 
Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee is also actively considering other 
proposals to improve the SCRA.
  The legislation I am introducing today with Senator Cardin was 
introduced in the House of Representatives as H.R. 5747 on May 15, 
2012, by Ranking Member Cummings, along with the Ranking Member of the 
House Armed Services Committee, Representative Adam Smith, and the 
Ranking Member of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, Representative 
Bob Filner. Two days later, it was adopted as an amendment to the 
National Defense Authorization Act by an overwhelming vote of 394 27.
  Now that the House has expressed its bipartisan support for this 
legislation, I am introducing it in the Senate for consideration. The 
recent House vote shows that this is an issue that should rise above 
partisan politics. I hope that the House's recent action will give the 
Senate new momentum to look at what we can do to strengthen the SCRA 
and protect our military personnel and their families. A short summary 
of the bill is provided below.
  The Military Family Home Protection Act expands the class of covered 
individuals under the SCRA's mortgage provisions to include: All 
servicemembers serving on the battlefield, regardless of when they 
bought their home. Servicemembers retiring 100 percent disabled due to 
service-connected injuries and surviving spouses of servicemembers who 
died in military service.
  The act stays mortgage foreclosure proceedings against SCRA-covered 
persons for 1 year following their service; it also eliminates a 
current sunset provision that will reduce this protection to 90 days 
beginning January 1, 2013.
  The Act doubles the civil penalty for SCRA mortgage violations to 
$110,000 for the first offense and $220,000 for subsequent violations.
  The act protects servicemembers and their families against 
discrimination by banks and lenders on account of servicemembers' 
eligibility for SCRA protections. It also requires banks and lenders to 
take further steps to ensure SCRA compliance. These steps include: 
Designating an SCRA compliance officer. Requiring SCRA compliance 
officers to distribute information to servicemembers about their SCRA 
protections, and providing a toll-free telephone number and website to 
help servicemembers better understand their SCRA protections.

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