Housing
More on Housing
By Alan Zibel and Jeffrey Sparshott
The U.S. House voted Tuesday to end the Obama administration's main effort to assist troubled homeowners, with Republican lawmakers arguing that the program has failed to ease the foreclosure crisis.
The attempt to shut down the administration's flagship foreclosure-prevention effort, the Home Affordable Modification Program, or HAMP, is the last of four Republican attempts to shut down Obama administration efforts to prevent foreclosures or stabilize troubled neighborhoods.
by Meredith Shiner
The House Tuesday voted to eliminate the last of four Obama administration housing programs, in an effectively symbolic vote to end the controversial Home Affordable Modification Program.
by Alan Fram
House Republicans pushed through legislation Tuesday to terminate an underachieving Obama administration program designed to reduce mortgage payments for homeowners in danger of losing their homes to foreclosure.
Most Democrats, while acknowledging that the Home Affordable Modification Program has fallen short of original goals, protested the vote to kill it. The White House, in a statement, said that if the bill ever reaches President Barack Obama's desk, his senior advisers would recommend he veto it. The vote was 252-170.
by Peter Schroeder
A coalition of 50 House Democrats are calling on the Obama administration to overhaul one of its key housing relief programs, as Republicans are pushing to eliminate it.
In a letter sent Monday to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, the lawmakers, led by Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), say the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) has been "disappointing" and is in need of major improvements.
Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and the African American Members of the House Financial Services Committee (known as the FS 10) were recently honored by the Black Press of America and the National Newspaper Publishers Association Foundation (NNPAF) with the 2011 Political Leadership Award for their work during negotiations for the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010. The Congresswoman and Congressman William Lacy Clay, Jr. accepted the award on behalf of the FS 10 at an event last week at a Newsmaker Dinner and Gala at the Omni Shoreham Hotel.
Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), a senior member of the Financial Services Committee and a top congressional advocate for affordable housing, reintroduced H.R. 1209, The Section 8 Voucher Reform Act (SEVRA), late last week. The bill would reform the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program, which provides rental housing assistance to 2 million low-income American families.
An initiative championed by Rep. Maxine Waters to fix up run-down foreclosed properties could become a casualty of the Republican push to slash federal spending
by Richard Simon
The congressional hearing had been called to take testimony about a Republican plan to shut down a nationwide program championed by Rep. Maxine Waters that uses tax dollars to buy and fix up foreclosed properties.
When it was her turn to speak, the fiery Los Angeles Democrat said: "I don't have any questions. I just have a lot to say."
And she did.
The House of Representatives voted today to end the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP), which Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) created and which President George W. Bush signed into law three years ago under the Housing and Economic Recovery Act (HERA). Last week, House Republicans also voted to end the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) Short Refinance Program and the Emergency Homeowners Relief Program (EHRP), the latter of which Congresswoman Waters worked to include in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010.
FBI director says 3,000 mortgage fraud cases pending; More than 55 probes into subprime mortgage industry-FBI
By Jeremy Pelofsky
FBI Director Robert Mueller defended on Wednesday the Obama administration's efforts to prosecute Wall Street executives responsible for the U.S. mortgage meltdown amid criticism from some lawmakers that not enough has been done.
The agency has more than 3,000 open investigations into mortgage fraud alone, with 94 task forces and some 340 agents assigned, Mueller told the House of Representatives' Judiciary Committee.
Though their stated pledges since coming to power have been to 'cut the deficit' and 'create jobs,' House Republicans will soon take a series of votes to further solidify a radical agenda that does neither.