NEW DIRECTION FOR ENERGY INDEPENDENCE, NATIONAL SECURITY, AND CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT AND THE RENEWABLE ENERGY AND ENERGY CONSERVATION TAX ACT OF 2007--Continued -- (Senate - April 08, 2008)
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
AMENDMENT NO. 4382 TO AMENDMENT NO. 4387
(Purpose: To provide an incentive to employers to offer group legal plans that provide a benefit for real estate and foreclosure review)
Mrs. LINCOLN. I call up my amendment No. 4382.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the amendment.
The assistant legislative clerk read as follows:
The Senator from Arkansas [Mrs. Lincoln], for herself, Mr. Smith, Mr. Kerry, Ms. Stabenow, and Mr. Levin, proposes an amendment numbered 4382 to amendment No. 4387.
The amendment is as follows:
(Purpose: To provide an incentive to employers to offer group legal plans that provide a benefit for real estate and foreclosure review)
At the end of title III add the following:
SEC. 302. EXCLUSION FOR AMOUNTS RECEIVED UNDER QUALIFIED GROUP LEGAL SERVICES PLANS RESTORED, EXTENDED, AND MODIFIED.
(a) Removal of Dollar Limitation.--Section 120(a) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (relating to exclusion by employee for contributions and legal services provided by employer) is amended by striking the last sentence.
(b) Real Estate Matters Emphasized.--Section 120(c) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (relating to requirements) is amended by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
``(6) BENEFITS.--The plan shall provide, at a minimum, legal services for real estate matters relating to family or personal residences, including document review of real estate sales, purchases, closings, mortgages, and foreclosures.''.
(c) Extension.--Section 120(e) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended to read as follows:
``(e) Application.--This section and section 501(c)(20) shall apply to taxable years beginning after December 31, 2007, and before January 1, 2010.''.
(d) Effective Date.--The amendments made by this section shall apply to taxable years beginning after December 31, 2007.
Mrs. LINCOLN. Mr. President, the amendment I am offering today is a very important amendment because we are all here because we are concerned about the crisis that exists in the mortgage industry and certainly in home ownership, but, more importantly, we want to prevent it from happening again. We want to make sure we are providing information to home buyers and others, counseling them in a way that really makes a difference. The amendment I am offering today will encourage our employers to provide group legal services benefits with an emphasis on real estate counseling for their employees.
Group legal services plans have been around since the 1970s and are intended to do exactly what the Center for Responsible Lending says should be one of our very top priorities in this effort to deal with the housing crisis. We should be encouraging and incentivizing preventative legal services.
I want to make sure my colleagues understand how important this benefit is for our Nation's employees, particularly employees in rural areas and low-income areas where access to lawyers might be scarce. We should be giving the average American homeowner access to legal advice so that she or he can feel confident in the mortgages they are getting into and so that when, God forbid, things do go wrong, they can receive advice about what their rights and responsibilities are in dealing with foreclosures and what options are available to them in dealing with this crisis.
Section 120 of the Internal Revenue Code has lapsed. That section of the code was intended to provide a tax incentive so that our employers would offer group legal services plans to their employees. Since it has lapsed, virtually no new group legal benefit plans have been created and many employers are dropping those that do exist.
We should be encouraging these plans because they provide our working Americans with access to the legal advice they need, that they deserve, and that they often cannot access. Those legal services would provide a review of mortgage documents, would work with lenders to modify the loans and would create forbearance agreements, would assist in the restructuring of loans, and would provide counsel in foreclosure litigation when that is needed. These are all complex transactions that require significant legal counsel, and my amendment will help ensure that America's homeowners, particularly those who are hard-working American families, and those home buyers, can get that much needed advice. We have provided this advice and certainly these services, as I mentioned earlier, since the 1970s through this benefit where employers can actually pool their resources in providing this type of advice and service to their employees.
I wish to thank all of my colleagues who have cosponsored this important amendment. Many of us have worked on a separate bill, and we think this is absolutely an appropriate and a proper place to put this incentive.
But Senator Smith, Senator Kerry, Senator Stabenow, Senator Levin, Senator Schumer, and Senator Kennedy are all cosponsors of our amendment.
Mr. President, I also ask unanimous consent now to add Senator Snowe as a cosponsor, who is also a cosponsor of the bill.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mrs. LINCOLN. I also want to say a very big thanks to all of the groups that have endorsed this amendment: the American Bar Association, the American Prepaid Legal Services Institute, the International Union, the UAW, the AFSCME, and the Laborers. All of these groups have recognized how important it is to be able to provide these legal services to hard-working American families.
Particularly at a time when they may be affected in their home ownership or in the difficulties and challenges they face in the problems that exist in the mortgage industry right now, this is a critical component of the assistance we can provide them. To have let it lapse and to see that it virtually no longer exists is something we can correct. I hope we will with this amendment.
So, Mr. President, I thank you for the time, and I also say a special thanks to my chairman, Chairman Baucus, and Ranking Member Grassley, who have worked with us on this issue, along with Chairman Dodd and Ranking Member Shelby, who have done such a tremendous job in organizing and putting together, in an expeditious way, the effort we have to address these issues that working families are facing.
So I thank them and their staff for working with us, and we look forward to being able to move our amendment. I hope my colleagues will join me in
support of such an important amendment, a vehicle as well as a component that we already know works because we have had it in this country for quite some time in providing legal services to working American families. We want to continue to see that happen.
AMENDMENT NO. 4433 TO AMENDMENT NO. 4387
Mr. President, before I yield the floor, I ask unanimous consent to lay aside the pending amendment and call up an amendment on behalf of Senator Snowe.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mrs. LINCOLN. Mr. President, the amendment Senator Snowe is offering with several other colleagues is an amendment that focuses on what we passed and maybe what we did not quite notice. The Finance Committee passed an important provision that would provide an additional $10 billion in mortgage revenue bonds for first-time home buyers and at-risk borrowers. This is something we have been trying to do, and we have had much leadership in the Senate on this issue.
Under present law, however, mortgage revenue bonds are allocated with a small State set-aside. The $10 billion in the current package is allocated only based on State populations. As we know, the economic downturn and housing collapse do not necessarily correspond to the population of States.
Those of us who come from smaller States recognize that and also recognize the benefits that have been provided in the underlying law that exists in that small State set-aside.
The Snowe amendment adds enough additional bonds so large States will still receive their due under the allocation of the $10 billion by population, but small and rural States also receive their allocation based on a small State set-aside under the current law.
I think it is an important point we have noticed in terms of what the underlying law does and has done effectively and making sure we incorporate that into what we do moving forward in the legislation we have.
This amendment only costs about $134 million, but it means an awful lot for small and rural States in order to make sure they have equity in being able to access the resources their homeowners need and their States can provide through those revenue bonds.
So I urge my colleagues to support this fair and reasonable amendment which will be a good addition to the mortgage revenue bond provision in the underlying bill.
Mr. President, I yield the floor.