[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 4645]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1230
  ADMINISTRATION EFFORTS IN HOUSING AND SUBPRIME MORTGAGE CRISIS TOO 
                          LITTLE AND TOO LATE

  (Mr. PALLONE asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. PALLONE. Madam Speaker, last Friday President Bush traveled to my 
home county in New Jersey to encourage residents to seek free credit 
counseling if they faced the threat of losing their homes. And while 
the credit counseling is good advice, the President's actions were 
simply too little and too late.
  For months, the President has known that the housing and subprime 
mortgage crisis could force more than 2 million people to lose their 
homes over the next 5 years. Until yesterday, the President was 
unwilling to address this crisis in any way. And that is nothing new. 
For 7 years now, the Bush administration has taken a hands-off approach 
to Wall Street, allowing the corporations responsible for much of this 
mortgage crisis to work under the radar without any government 
oversight or regulation. Finally, the administration recognized 
yesterday that the President's credit counseling advice was not going 
to be enough. Treasury Secretary Paulson announced a proposal that 
finally calls for the regulation of these financial institutes. But, 
again, this is too little and too late.
  Madam Speaker, this House has already acted and will continue to pass 
legislation that will help homeowners today, and I would hope the 
President would support our efforts.

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