Franks Statement on H.R. 1106, "Homes Act"

Statement

"Legislation Fails to Put Accountability and Personal Responsibility First"

Congressman Trent Franks (AZ-02) today made the following remarks after the House passed the "Helping Families Save Their Homes Act of 2009" (H.R. 1106) by a vote of 234-191. The bill allows homeowners facing foreclosure to petition bankruptcy judges to cram-down the amount of money they owe on their primary residences.

"Despite the President's call to get 'rid of programs that aren't performing,' I'm afraid the Homes Act we passed today is unfortunately destined to fail to help the people who need it most. The 'Hope for Homeowners' program was intended to help over 400,000 families, and yet to date, it has helped less than four dozen. The mortgage cram-down proposal punishes the 90% of American homeowners who made the choice to live within their means, and would offer a get-out-of-jail-free card even to those who used fraudulent information to obtain their mortgages in the first place.

"In most cases, judicial cram-downs or "strip-downs" only delay foreclosure, and not prevent it, and do so at extraordinary expense in legal fees and damaged credit to the homeowner, while increasing mortgage rates and putting homeownership even further out of reach of the middle-class.

" Instead, we need to create carefully targeted plan that rewards responsible borrowing and lending, and incentivizes responsible investment to encourage the creation of wealth and aid our ailing economy."

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