Posted on 10/21/2009 7:36:59 PM PDT by Libloather
Frank wants to use bailout money to stop foreclosures
BY JIM HAND SUN CHRONICLE STAFF
Wednesday, October 14, 2009 2:09 AM EDT
U.S. Rep. Barney Frank will push to redirect some repaid bank bailout money toward unemployed workers in danger of losing their homes.
Frank, D-Newton, is sponsoring legislation that would make low-interest loans available to the unemployed so they can make their mortgage payments and prevent foreclosure.
His bill envisions using $2 billion that bank have repaid the government from bailouts they received under the Troubled Assets Relief Program.
Frank said the federal help would not go to people who bought homes they could not afford.
The assistance would be for people who were making their mortgage payments faithfully until they lost their jobs. The move is aimed at preventing the home foreclosure rate from climbing and further depressing home values.
It comes shortly after the government announced that the national unemployment rate had risen to 9.9 percent and the foreclosure rate in August reached 18 percent.
Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, represents a district that includes Norton, Mansfield, Foxboro and Norfolk.
(AP:WASHINGTON) The House Financial Services Committee agreed Wednesday to ensure states can impose their own tough consumer protection laws against big banks, dealing a blow to a financial industry blamed for bringing down the U.S. economy and lobbying furiously against more government oversight.
The measure, approved by voice vote, would allow federal regulators to exempt national banks from state laws if those laws would "significantly interfere" with the bank's ability to do business. Otherwise, banks would be forced to comply with a myriad of state laws that are often tougher than federal laws, under the House plan.
The House panel was on track to approve by Thursday broader legislation that would create a Consumer Financial Protection Agency dedicated to monitoring such common financial products as credit cards and mortgages.
Wednesday's debate on the agency's scope was the latest tussle between lawmakers, who say they are working to protect the average American from abusive rate hikes and predatory lending, and a powerful financial lobby with deep pockets.
The financial industry has contributed more than $53 million this year to members of Congress and the political parties, with $6 million of that going to members of the House Financial Services Committee as of the end of July, according to the watchdog group Center for Responsive Politics.
The Chamber of Commerce has led the attack on the consumer protection agency. This summer it conducted a $2 million advertising and organizing campaign against the proposal and provoking President Barack Obama to criticize their tactics in a recent speech.
**SNIP**
"Rolling back this 140-year-old precedent of federal rules to a system of 50 different state regimes increases costs for training and compliance, which gets passed to consumers," Bean said in a statement released ahead of Wednesday's vote.
Other lawmakers sought to carve out exemptions for industries popular in their districts.
Rep. John Campbell, a California Republican who spent almost 25 years in the automobile business before being elected, said the legislation should be clarified to ensure auto dealers are exempt from agency oversight. Frank has said they would be, although the panel will vote on Campbell's measure on Thursday.
Rep. Gwen Moore, a Democrat from Wisconsin with a major private mortgage insurer in her district, pushed through her measure to shield credit, mortgage and title insurers from agency regulations. The agency would still regulate lenders that provide those products to consumers.
Frank said he was open to tweaking the bill but wanted to keep exemptions to a minimum.
"If you're going to get at that minority of people who abuse (consumers), you have to have rules that apply to everybody," he said.
Also on Wednesday, the House Agriculture Committee approved separate legislation that would regulate privately traded derivatives, complex financial instruments blamed for contributing to last year's crisis. The proposal closely resembles legislation approved last week by the House Financial Services Committee.
In coming weeks, Democrats are expected to roll together the various regulatory reform proposals into a single bill to be voted on by the full House.
"The time has come for this committee to act," said Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn., who chairs the Agriculture Committee. "If this bill gets delayed too long, it risks becoming bogged down by the politics that often accompanies an election year."
This is an excerpt.
http://news.ino.com/headlines/?newsid=689667079805790
This government wants to control our houses, our cars, our children, our health, ...
Why not just pay off every mortage in AmeriKa.
Heck its better use of the Tarp funds then the first round.
TARP was never anything more than a giant political slush fund...
Frank is a socialist perv, and should have been frog marched out of DC a long time ago...
Cannot stand slobbering jackass
Get Franks out of there
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