[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Pages 15746-15747]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                HOUSING

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, the House is going to vote, probably 
sometime shortly after lunchtime today, on the comprehensive housing 
legislation. I have spoken during the last month or so to Secretary 
Paulson several times. Each call he places to me--I don't call him, 
even though I feel comfortable in calling him--is because he is very 
concerned about what is going on with the American economy. He 
recognizes that there are deep problems, but one of the problems is 
housing.
  People understand more every day that it is more than just the person 
losing their home that is a concern to us with foreclosures. There are 
8,500 new foreclosure notices every day. It is more than just that 
person or that family in that home. It affects the neighborhood. It 
affects the government entity where the home is located because their 
taxes are no longer coming in. And, of course, it also has a dramatic 
effect on the servicer of these loans and the ultimate lender of these 
loans. It is a situation where, if there is a homebuilding turndown or 
cessation of homebuilding, it has a tremendous impact because so many 
different items go into a home--carpeting, appliances, brickwork, 
landscaping. It has a tremendous pyramid effect. Secretary Paulson 
recognizes that.
  The package that has been put together by Senator Dodd and the 
distinguished Senator from Alabama, Mr. Shelby, working with their 
counterparts in the House, is a piece of legislation imperfect in 
nature but a very good piece of legislation. The package basically 
keeps the Senate-passed bill intact but includes a variation of the 
proposal made by the administration to shore up Fannie Mae and Freddie 
Mac.
  I am happy to report to everyone that the Bush administration has 
reversed its veto threat on this legislation. That is really good news 
for the American people. But we still see, even in today's press, there 
are some Republican Senators threatening to delay and possibly try to 
derail this legislation. I have had conversations with Senator 
McConnell, and I don't think it can be derailed. They can slow it down 
a little bit. We are going to do everything we can--I am confident that 
is the case--Senator McConnell and I, to get this done just as quickly 
as we can. I hope we can finish it today. That would be great, if it 
could go to the President today, because now that President Bush has 
joined our call to pass this crucial legislation into law, I would hope 
those few stragglers who have said in the press they will do what

[[Page 15747]]

they can to slow this down would understand that if we have to invoke 
cloture, because it takes a couple days, it would mean another 17,000 
foreclosures. I hope that is not necessary. The Senate doesn't need and 
our country cannot afford another filibuster on this matter.

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