Aiding Those Facing Foreclosure Act of 2010

Floor Speech

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Ms. WATERS. Thank you very much.

Mr. Speaker and Members, I'd first like to thank Barney Frank for all of the efforts he's put into helping homeowners and the leadership that he's provided on this committee, the Financial Services Committee.

I'd like to thank Marcy Kaptur. She has been a stalwart, not on the committee but working every day because she's in one of the hardest hit States, but so am I in California.

It is unthinkable that we could have used TARP funds for every major corporation, all of the banks, all of the too-big-to fail, and yet we would deny homeowners in the heart of his State some assistance. What are we saying? These are people who have followed the American Dream, and we have found that all kinds of exotic products were put on the market. Many of them were tricked into signing on the dotted line, and now we have whole communities that are being boarded up, that are in foreclosure, communities that are being driven into the ground because cities can't afford to keep them up.

We've done everything that we could do. We had the NSP. We have assistance to unemployed folks. We're trying to do everything with not a lot of help from the administration or from the regulatory agencies in general.

The HAMP program simply has not worked. We need to send a message and a real substantive message to the people and homeowners of America that we care about them. We don't want them put on the street. We don't want them losing their homes. The services or the too-big-to-fail banks, everybody has made out on the backs of the American public. What's wrong with using some of the TARP money for legal assistance?

People are trying very hard to fight these battles alone. They can't get in touch with the services. They're trying to figure out where the notes are, who really owns the mortgages. We have found that all kind of robo-signing is going on. This whole industry has failed us and we are allowing these homeowners to swim out there alone by themselves with no help.

Let's help the American people. This is the least that we can do as we close out this 111th Congress. We can not only send this message, but we could stand up and demand that they get the kind of help that will keep them and their families in their homes.

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