Commerce, Justice, Science, And Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2010

Floor Speech

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Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Chairman, thank you for discussing with me a matter of great importance to the citizens of the United States.

At the heart of our financial crisis is the housing crisis and at the heart of the housing crisis is mortgage fraud. The FBI redeployed financial special agents in the last decade and have yet to allow the White Collar Crime Division to replace those agents even when it warned the public and the administration in 2004 of the potential for mortgage fraud to become an epidemic. The vast majority of mortgage fraud in fact goes unreported, and thus the depth of mortgage fraud is vastly underestimated.

In the savings and loan investigations of the late eighties and early nineties, approximately 500 FBI agents worked on cases. In February 2009, however, Deputy Director of the FBI John Pistole testified before the Senate stating: ``However, today's financial crisis dwarfs the S&L crisis as financial institutions have reduced their assets by more than $1 trillion related to the current global financial crisis, compared to the estimated $160 million lost during the S&L crisis.''

According to the Department of Justice budget documents, there are currently 175 FBI agents working mortgage fraud and corporate mortgage fraud. That is laughable, given the vast amount of taxpayer dollars still at risk. We know that the FBI Mortgage Fraud Division needs to have an increase in special agents and an increase in the necessary support personnel such as forensic accountants.

I look forward to working with the chairman as the bill moves forward to address this national need.

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