Emergency Mortgage Relief Program Termination Act: House of Representatives

Floor Speech

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Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Madam Chair, the Emergency Mortgage Relief program was created in the Dobb-Frank Act to help distressed homeowners who fall behind on their mortgage payments due to involuntary unemployment, underemployment or a medical condition. The program works by providing qualifying borrowers with a zero interest bridge loan that enables them to make their mortgage payments until they can find a job or otherwise resume paying their loan. Assistance under the program is terminated when a borrower's income is restored to 85 percent of pre-crisis levels and is limited to a maximum of 24 months or $50,000, whichever comes first.

Madam Chair, this program is modeled after successful initiatives at the state level--such as the Homeowners Emergency Mortgage Assistance Program, HEMAP, in Pennsylvania, whose 85 percent success rate has helped over 45,000 homeowners stay in their homes at an average loan amount of $11,000 per borrower. With our economic recovery still gaining momentum, and unemployment hovering around 9 percent, now is not the time to terminate assistance to borrowers at risk of losing their homes through no fault of their own. Instead, we should give this program a chance to work and extend a temporary hand to those who need this assistance the most.

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