[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 4]
[House]
[Pages 4683-4684]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        LOAN MODIFICATION CRISIS

  (Ms. TSONGAS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Ms. TSONGAS. Madam Speaker, last year, I heard from a single father 
from Haverhill, Massachusetts, who put his life savings into purchasing 
a home. After a reduction in his salary forced him to modify his 
mortgage, his servicer stopped returning his phone calls, lost his 
documents, and refused to provide him with any information to help him 
modify his loan.
  He wrote to me saying, ``My bank told me that they had not received 
the application documents I had sent at the beginning of the 
modification process. It was ridiculous, as I have the

[[Page 4684]]

original documents on file with the fax receipt. Nonetheless, I faxed 
everything again.''
  Over the course of an entire year, he called and re-sent his 
documents, speaking with multiple people, none of whom could give him 
an answer or even find that he had a modification in place.
  This story represents just one of the many that I have heard from 
constituents. We should be doing far more to ensure that these lenders 
are playing by the rules.
  Instead, my Republican colleagues have sought to terminate every step 
taken by the Federal Government to help homeowners like my constituent, 
leaving them at the mercy of unscrupulous lenders such as these.

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