The HAMP Termination Act of 2011

Floor Speech

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Mr. CARSON of Indiana. Over the last few years, the United States has faced a devastating economic crisis.

As a result of the economic downturn, many homeowners have lost their homes or are at imminent risk of foreclosure. That is why the Obama administration launched the Federal Home Affordable Modification Program: to stem the escalating tide of home foreclosures and the disastrous impact it has on families and their communities.

HAMP's purpose is to help eligible homeowners avoid foreclosure by providing them with permanent loan modifications to terms they can afford. Although this program is far from perfect, it has helped more than 600,000 families lower their mortgage payments and stay in their homes. H.R. 839, the HAMP Termination Act of 2011, will end this program and is the latest effort by House Republicans to end foreclosure avoidance and mitigation programs.

With forecasts showing that there will be 3 million foreclosures nationwide this year and the housing turnaround not expected for at least 3 years, Republicans have yet to offer any alternative to help solving our housing crisis.

Republicans have also failed to address the impact this crisis is having on minority communities. An estimated 17 percent of Latino families and 11 percent of African American families have lost their homes or are at imminent risk of losing their homes.

Eliminating support for distressed homeowners at this point in time would be disastrous for neighborhoods trying to recover from the foreclosure crisis. Instead, we should focus our efforts on ways to make HAMP a useful, wide-reaching program with meaningful goals, goals such as pushing lenders to reduce the principal on loans that are underwater and give struggling homeowners real relief.

I urge opposition to this misguided bill.

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