Maria_Cantwell@cantwell.senate.gov wrote:
From the Office of Senator Cantwell
From: Maria_Cantwell@cantwell.senate.gov
Sent: Friday, April 03, 2009 8:30 AM
To: Tom
Subject: From the Office of Senator CantwellSenator Maria Cantwell (D-WA)
On March 5, 2009, the U.S. House of Representatives approved the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act of 2009 (H.R.1106) by a vote of 234 to 191, which included a provision to give bankruptcy judges the authority to modify mortgage terms for troubled homeowners in order to encourage lenders to work with troubled homeowners to renegotiate mortgages before a homeowner is forced into bankruptcy. This legislation has been referred to the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs for further review. On March 20, 2009, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid publicly announced that the Senate will debate this legislation in late April 2009.
The time to debate this legislation is now. It’s hard for folks who are under water in their homes to continue to pay 7-10% on a $175,000 and up ARM that will readjust in a year or two. They need help today. Sometimes congress critters are so far removed from money troubles like this that they just don’t understand. They say that they feel your pain, but they are just saying that. Most of them haven’t felt those kinds of poverty pains since college. When someone finds themselves facing down foreclosure – people knocking on your door asking when and where the auction will be – they face daunting traumatic stress. They don’t know where to turn because at this point in the game, the lender has stopped trying to negotiate. This legislation that enables bankruptcy judges to cram down the mortgage terms should have been passed months ago. Time is wasting.
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