Mortgage Relief. H.R. 3221, the Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008, passed 84-12 on April 10, 2008 (Roll Call 96). It was originally introduced in the House as an energy bill under another title and was passed as such in 2007. The Senate substituted a very different text, turning the bill into a vehicle for foreclosure prevention and returned it to the House for approval as three Senate amendments.
Among the overall bill’s many aspects, it reforms the Federal Housing Administration, providing it liquidity and changing its insurance program to help homeowners facing foreclosure to refinance; it includes a net operating loss proposal that Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) described as a multi-billion dollar bailout of the home-builders industry; it appropriates funding to states to redevelop foreclosed properties; and it would provide renewable-energy tax breaks.
We have assigned pluses to the nays because it is unconstitutional for the federal government to be an insurer, and wealth redistributor.
