Loan Modification Crisis

Floor Speech

Ms. TSONGAS. Madam Speaker, last year, I heard from a single father from Haverhill, Massachusetts, who put his life savings into purchasing a home. After a reduction in his salary forced him to modify his mortgage, his servicer stopped returning his phone calls, lost his documents, and refused to provide him with any information to help him modify his loan.

He wrote to me saying, ``My bank told me that they had not received the application documents I had sent at the beginning of the modification process. It was ridiculous, as I have the original documents on file with the fax receipt. Nonetheless, I faxed everything again.''

Over the course of an entire year, he called and re-sent his documents, speaking with multiple people, none of whom could give him an answer or even find that he had a modification in place.

This story represents just one of the many that I have heard from constituents. We should be doing far more to ensure that these lenders are playing by the rules.

Instead, my Republican colleagues have sought to terminate every step taken by the Federal Government to help homeowners like my constituent, leaving them at the mercy of unscrupulous lenders such as these.

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