Fraud Enforcement And Recovery Act Of 2009

Floor Speech

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Mr. AL GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I am proud to support S. 386, the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act of 2009.

The bursting of the housing bubble and the subsequent deterioration of the economy revealed fundamental weaknesses in our mortgage and financial industries. Predatory lending and discriminatory practices coupled with a lack of regulation and oversight resulted in many people being steered towards loans that they could not afford, or being given higher cost loans than they qualified for.

Fraud, by definition, is the crime or offense of deliberately deceiving another in order to damage them--usually to obtain property or services unjustly. The practices that I just discussed certainly fit this definition.

Mr. Speaker, during the height of the housing bubble, many were blinded by greed, and their actions played a large role in bringing about the economic hardships that we hear about on a daily basis. We must never allow such practices to happen again, and those guilty of mortgage fraud should be sought out and prosecuted.

This bill would do precisely that. It would expand the definition of ``financial institution'' to include mortgage lending businesses or any person who makes federally related mortgage loans. It also extends the prohibition of providing false information for mortgage documents to employees and agents of the mortgage lending business.

This bill also takes a comprehensive approach to investigating and enforcing mortgage fraud. It authorizes monies for a wide swath of government agencies to strengthen their individual efforts and therefore strengthening their collective efforts.

Mr. Speaker, much work remains to be done as we move forward, and while this piece of legislation is not the be-all-end-all solution, it is a meaningful first step, and I support it in full.

I thank my friend and colleague Representative John Conyers Jr. for introducing this legislation.

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