THUD Appropriations
Floor Speech
THUD APPROPRIATIONS -- (Senate - December 05, 2007)
Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, as I was saying, Secretary Paulson has been complaining about the need for mortgage counseling, and he said:
For this public outreach campaign to be successful, there must be enough trained mortgage counselors to answer the phone when homeowners call. The administration requested funding for NeighborWorks America and other nonprofit mortgage counseling operations in its budget. But the appropriations bill has yet to be finalized; Congress needs to get it done quickly.
That was not me, that was Secretary Paulson. We can do that right now. In fact, we could have done it last month. We are trying desperately to send this bill in its final stages that includes critical investment in housing counseling to the White House, just as Secretary Paulson said he wanted us to do.
The bipartisan conferees on this bill agree that the amount the President asked for was too low to meet the demand for housing counseling, given the size of the problem. Congress acted. We increased it substantially. But even though every Republican conferee on our bill signed onto that plan, we are now being blocked from sending it to the White House. I only wish the Senate Republican leadership would follow the words of Secretary Paulson and Secretary Jackson about the need for this urgent initiative.
Yesterday's Washington Post published an article on our $200 million housing counseling initiative. I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record the Washington Post article.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows:
[From the Washington Post, Dec. 4, 2007]
Nonprofit Groups Take Center Stage
(By Renae Merle)
In the middle of his speech yesterday on the administration's efforts to fix the mortgage crisis, Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. paused to carefully spell out a toll-free telephone number that troubled homeowners can call for help.
The hotline is not staffed by government officials or mortgage lenders. Rather, the calls are answered by consumer counselors from nonprofit groups, which are taking an increasingly high-profile role in helping borrowers with mortgage problems.
The groups are acting in some cases as a buffer between lenders and homeowners. Legislation is pending before Congress that would tap NeighborWorks America, a national nonprofit group, to distribute $200 million to local counseling centers. In October, the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America, often a vocal critic of mortgage lenders, signed a deal with Countrywide Financial, the nation's biggest mortgage lender, to help restructure loans for struggling Countrywide clients.
However the administration addresses the mortgage crisis, ``they are going to need the nonprofit community,'' said Kenneth D. Wade, chief executive of NeighborWorks.
His group is training new housing counselors and plans to double its counseling staff by next month. ``We think every consumer needs a mortgage adviser,'' he said.
Nonprofit organizations around the country are already seeing a soaring demand for their services. St. Ambrose Housing Aid Center in Baltimore, which usually sees about 700 families a year, says it has met with almost 2,000 so far this year.
At the National Foundation for Credit Counseling, where about half the counselors at its member agencies focus on housing issues, President Susan Keating says: ``We are very, very busy.''
Government and mortgage industry officials don't often agree on what caused the mortgage crisis, what its impact will be, or how to cure it, but they all say that reaching homeowners before they go into foreclosure is difficult.
If a homeowner with an adjustable-rate mortgage that is about to reset, or one who is behind in payments receives mail from his lender offering help, the homeowner responds 3 to 5 percent of the time, according to Hope Now, a new alliance of mortgage industry and nonprofit organizations. If the offer comes from a community group, the response rate is about 25 percent. About 50 percent of homeowners who go into foreclosure do so without ever contacting their lender.
``If we are to make a difference, that number has to be reduced,'' Paulson said.
The best hope, many think, may be through the nonprofit community. The toll-free number Paulson touted--888-995-HOPE--has seen a spike in volume, to 3,000 calls a day from 300 a year ago.
There are 180 consumer counselors from six nonprofit groups answering those calls. That will increase to 250 by the end of the year, according to the Homeownership Preservation Foundation, which manages the hotline.
With an estimated 2 million adjustable-rate mortgages scheduled to reset in the next two years, even that likely will not be enough. ``We are definitely not going to be stopping at 250,'' said Tracy Morgan, a spokeswoman for the foundation, which is largely financed by the mortgage industry.
The counselors focus on diagnosing the homeowners' problems, then direct them to a local community group for help or guide them through a call with their lender. The initial call usually lasts about 45 minutes as the counselor puts together a detailed budget analysis and creates an action plan for the homeowner, according to the foundation. That could include getting a second job or reducing spending. The foundation does not charge homeowners for the service.
In a separate program, the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America acts as a go-between, working out deals with lenders on behalf of borrowers. Under its deal with Countrywide, the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America has restructured about 200 loans.
Like many nonprofit groups, it has seen demand for its services climb in the past year and attributes most of the increase to homeowners with adjustable-rate mortgages. To keep up with demand, the organization is opening five offices around the country and is hiring about 30 employees a month.
``This is just the beginning. It is going to get far worse,'' said Bruce Marks, the group's chief executive.
Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, this article describes the importance of nonprofit housing counseling agencies and all they can do to help keep our mortgage holders in their homes.
Finally, I wish to say this: In the recent days, the storms in my State of Washington highlight how critical and important this bill is. Devastating mud slides and floods in my State of Washington and the State of Oregon have swamped out homes and washed out roads all across our States. It has been devastating. Families are hurting. People cannot get to work. People cannot get to where they need to go. Many of our roads are closed, including a 20-mile stretch of Interstate 5, a major artery connecting Seattle and Portland, which will be closed through Thursday, possibly longer, and the floods have virtually isolated communities across the Pacific Northwest. My heart goes out to all these families who have been affected.
We are going to be feeling the effect of this storm you have been watching on television for days, weeks, possibly months. That is not just because it caused serious damage to our roads and bridges. The closure of I-5 forced cars and trucks traveling from Seattle to Portland to detour all the way to the Tri-Cities. That is a drive that not only takes 4 hours longer, but it means our drivers have to go across a high mountain pass, not once but twice, to get to Portland. Think about the effect that is going to have on our businesses and our economy.
The impact of that storm reinforces how important transportation infrastructure is to every single one of us. We need to make those investments in our roads, in our bridges, in our airports, in our railways because one rain storm, one bridge disaster, one airport disruption can have huge impacts on our families and our economy throughout the region and throughout the country.
I am deeply disappointed the Republican leadership has said no. This is a bill that has passed the conference committee, passed the House, and it has one more step to make it to the President. It has bipartisan support. There is no reason we cannot finish this business, send it to the President, and get one of the critical appropriations bills done that he has been yelling we have been holding up. It is here. We are ready. We are waiting for a response.
I yield the floor.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mrs. MURRAY. Will the Senator from Montana yield for a question?
Mr. BAUCUS. I will be glad to yield.
Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I ask the Senator from Montana, within the extenders package is the deduction of the State sales tax extension, something that has been granted by Congress for the last 7 years to a number of States that were, prior to a few years ago, not able to deduct their State sales tax. That is very important to people in my State. We need to have this extender passed. I wish to ask the Senator from Montana if that is one of the issues that is being blocked now by the Republicans as they object to going to this package because as we come up on the end of the year, as families are looking at what to purchase for Christmas, this is something extremely important to them. If this is not going to be extended, it will impact their incomes at a critical time, when we are facing rising gas prices, the cost of our mortgages, and people are worried about everything else.
So I would ask the Senator from Montana, is the State sales tax deduction part of that extension that is now being blocked?
Mr. BAUCUS. I say to my dear friend from Washington that it is part of the extender package that is in there. So if that were extended this year and that would go into effect, the good people of the State of Washington would not have to pay that.
Mrs. MURRAY. I thank the Senator from Montana. It is very important to our State and a number of other States--I believe Texas and other States here. I hope the Republicans don't continue to block this so we can indeed make sure our constituents are taken care of.
Mr. BAUCUS. I appreciate that. I may also say I suspect--I am only guessing here--the objection from the other side of the aisle is in part mischievous. Senators from the other side of the aisle wish to force some votes on some other measures which are not apt at this moment. What are they? President Bush's tax cuts, extending the tax cuts, extending the 2001 tax cuts. Some
[Page: S14762]
Senators on the other side want to force a vote on that. That doesn't expire until 2010. This is 2007; AMT applies to 2007. We have to act now. This isn't 2010.
Others wish to vote on the 2003 tax cuts, which expire--when? Again, 2010. Not now; in 2010.
I see my time is expiring. I strongly urge people to focus on what is going on here--not the rhetoric, just look at the facts. The facts are that I, as chairman of the Finance Committee, am willing and do advocate bringing up legislation to repeal the alternative minimum tax as it applies to taxpayers for 2007. There are various ways to do it. One is the House-passed bill. If that doesn't work, we will do the measure proposed by myself and Senator Grassley, which is AMT, not paid for, but the tax extenders paid for. If that doesn't work, I am even willing to go so far as to see AMT alone, not paid for. That is where we should be and what we should do.
Finally, I don't know if I am known as a partisan guy. I think I tend to be perceived as somebody who tries to work things out, tries to be pragmatic, tries to get things done, not flail in a partisan manner, not engage in flowery rhetoric for the heck of it, getting headlines, and so forth. There comes a time when you have to call it like it is, say it like it is. That is what I am trying to do. I am trying to be practical and pragmatic here by calling it, saying what is going on here, and that is, despite the cries from the other side, despite the cries from the White House for Congress to fix AMT, they themselves, behind the scenes, indirectly, are blocking it. They are blocking it. They are saying one thing and doing something else.
As my father used to tell me, it is deeds, not words. They have the words but they also are blocking the deeds. I hope very much they change their minds and allow us to pass legislation here to fix AMT, because it is up to them to let us do it.
I yield the floor.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source