it will come to order that is opening prayer will be offered by just chaplain reverend elliot voss national chaplain of the american legion pray god bless america shines your face on us before and we need your guidance and protection now more than ever god bless america bless our president our leaders in congress and our state and local leaders as they all seek to serve those who haven't trusted them to their offices may your light shine in their hearts always god bless america and for those men and women here today i ask you to give them wisdom courage and hope for the future give them your grace and your peace that as  face you would impart to them your wisdom your courage and your hope that they will do your will at all times please god bless america and our citizens who seek to live in peace and harmony with one another in this country of one nation under god encourage them to do on to others that we all might be prosperous and all we do by helping those in need and less fortunate may your love surround our citizen soldiers sailors when marines coast guard personnel and their families each and every day throughout this world and please god bless america and bring please join me in reciting the pledge allegiance to our flag following my remarks and those the republican leaders choose to make remarks will be a period of mourning business till twelve thirty the center's permitted speak for ten minutes each senate will recess from twelve thirty until two fifteen for our normal legislation if the last fifteen minutes is set aside for the two leaders and if we choose to use that time that's equally divided  on the previous order the leadership time is reserved under the previous order the senate will proceed to a period of morning business until twelve thirty p m with a time equally divided between the two leaders or their designees and with senators permitted to speak their in for up to ten minutes each falses quite a unique individual he is currently the national chaplain of the american legion and he was appointed by commander martin cohen aster own aug thirty two thousand and seven to that position reverend foster's retired u s navy command master chief and hospital corpsman having served in the submarine service he served in the navy during vietnam and through the persian gulf war he attended candler seminary and school of ministry at emory university in atlanta georgia and he served as pastor in states in the states of maine virginia connecticut florida and georgia he is currently resides in kings island georgio with his wife arlene he's an ordained southern baptist minister a member of american legion post number three seventeen in the coastal area of georgia where he serves as post commander he also i served as the eighth district bice commander and his post now and commander in brunswick georgia he served as the american legion department of georgia chaplain for the past seven years i think in this difficult time that our country is faced with right now where we all are very cognizant of the fact that we have a number of men and women in harm's way as well as a number of veterans who has served our country so valiantly in the past that it's very appropriate that we have the current chaplain of the american legion in this great country of ours to stand before us and ask for blessings upon all members of this body as well as the other leadership in this from a civilian stamp phone as well as as a military standpoint and reverend falses terrific individual happen to be with them last week in king's bage georgia which is the home of a submarine fleet and we had the u s s georgia which is a converted nuclear submarine to return to the kings bay where it is going to be stationed then and we had just  for extending that great blessing to us and congratulations on serving as the chaplain of the national organization of the american legion and with that mr president i would you  from missouri i thank you mr president as i think we all know far too many families in america are seeing the american dream of owning their own home slip away over easter break i toured the state of missouri i met with people in every community around the state who are struggling under the threat of foreclosure neighborhood groups who are concerned about the impact of foreclosure on the families and on their communities mayors city council leaders who are seeing their communities threatened seriously by this spate of sub prime foreclosures and most of  all the mothers and fathers with children who are facing the loss of their home i didn't talk with speculators investors or the folks on wall street but the people i talk to did have a number of thoughts thoughts that they believe would help them keep the promise of keeping their home they didn't want a federal bailout but they were looking for ways to make the system work for them some of the suggestions they made were at the macro level and among others they said there ought to be regulation probably federal regulation of those who originated mortgages now many of the bricks and mortar lending institutions the banks to savings and loans in the community are regulated but there are many mortgages sub prime mortgages were sold over the internet and by fax whenever i go home my fax machine is filled that's a good idea to go in and help out homeowners whose mortgages have had reset and cause them to lose their homes but it's too narrow they think that ought to be reformed and i believe that f a we as the taxpayers should not be put at risk by ensuring loans where there is zero downpayment regretably zero down payment too often that the homeowner can't really afford that mortgage and they walk away the off cited program the nehemiah program which provides charitable contributions to take care of the down payment requirements has an appalling thirty percent default rate that is all raid on the federal treasury we ought not to be doing that before people make a loan they ought to have counseling and education to make sure that their finances if they're income will support the mortgage payments and also when you buy a home they might have to support the replacement of a furnace and blow or a leaky roof things that renters don't have to don't have to pay if they can't afford to buy a home we want we want to see them in a good home that could be around a home but the most important thing they said that we could do now is provide counseling to bring together those homeowners who are whose homes are in foreclosure facing foreclosure to sit down with the lenders and see if they can work out an agreement before they go to foreclosure and everybody says well what interest as a lender have in avoiding foreclosure well foreclosures are expensive they drive down the value of the property and potentially put at risk the value behind other mortgages that they may own in the same community last fall senator dodd and i agreed and we included one hundred eighty million dollars in the housing urban development appropriations bill to begin counseling the first hundred thirty million has gone out we are beginning to see the results of that those those counseling dollars can help homeowners if they will go to a counseling entity united way local governments to get counseling before they wind up on the courthouse steps in addition there needs to be there need to be dollars available to buy down mortgages whose mortgage rates have skyrocketed because of the sub prime crisis and that's why in the safe act that i have introduced with my colleagues the security against foreclosure and education act that  we make sure that there is money available through the state housing finance agency i know well the housing finance agency and in missouri the missouri housing development corporation and they have a great plan of if they can have more money and would be one hundred sixty to one hundred eighty a possibly two hundred million in missouri they could go in and buy up mortgages where the private mortgage holder has had to increase substantially the rate because of the overall market conditions if he's h f age can sell paper tax exempt paper they can bring back the mortgage rate to the level that are  it's very important for fixed income homeowners who have counted on a certain mortgage payment they see that go up fifty percent and too many of them are being forced with the choice of walking away because they can't meet it fact a measure to provide a tax credit for families willing to buy a home in foreclosure are going into foreclosure and other words it would be a five thousand dollars tax credit for each of three years for families that would move in to one of these homes either in foreclosure or facing foreclosure that not only gives a boost to first time home buyers but the most important thing it can do for communities is avoid the problem of having a community with twenty percent of the homes in foreclosure now that isn't just a problem for the twenty percent of the families are facing foreclosure that is a potential disaster for the other eighty percent the homeowners because you know what that does to the value of their homes the values of every house in that community it drives goes down significantly so they may find that their home is worth less than the value of the mortgage through home purchasing documents several times recently they give you a stack of paper that high it's all been written by lawyers god bless them and it has every contingency spelled out but most people who go through they purchase price purchase process spend forty minutes just signing the papers without knowing how to know what we want is a very simple disclosure on top which is binding on the lender and on the borrower that says what the rate will be if it's adjustable how high it can adjust when it can adjust if there is a prepayment penalty what are the other terms that might cause significant economic distress to the home buyer if they know that in advance and there ought to be counseling to help those home prospected homebuyers measure their financial ability their ability through very income to buy a home to make sure that they can afford the mortgage that they are that they are seeking i believe mr president that this is the basis on which i hope almost all of us in this body can agree we've heard a lot about what's going on a macro level and there are some important things happening with the fannie mae and freddie mac getting two hundred billion more than they can loan  the federal reserve moving and all these things are important on a large national scale this is not only however a national and international problem most of all it's a community problem and the proposals we've set forth here in this say fact are designed to help build up from the community level the solutions that we need that homebuyers brick and homeowners particularly those threatened with foreclosure are facing right now we're only going to solve this problem if we work community by community and they say fact is designed to help homeowners counselors local government officials deal with that problem in their communities and build community by community nationwide their solution to the problem that affects not just homeowners but really affects our entire community mr president i invite our colleagues to look at this legislation i hope we can discuss it as as our leader has said and come to agreement on some things that we can pass and pass right now because too many homeowners are facing a crisis and need not i thank the chair f getting good at counsel and advice from my main appropriator a man who really knows a great deal about this whole problem and about this issue and i thank you for your comments i think you're exactly right in talking about how the problem we're seeing today is hurting families when i had the good fortune to be at hud it was in the good times we were talking about ever increasing rates of homeownership particularly on minority families more more people getting into homeownership th thing because as we were doing that we were building communities in the streets were getting stronger and families were getting stronger streets stronger in cities and communities stronger and now we're seeing the reverse of that and that's why it's so important we take some steps as you suggested to move forward aggressively on this problem let me just talk a little bit about what i saw in florida during the last few days when i was there and i think florida in this regard is a microcosm of the country the state of the market is one in which we see increasingly at the level of the homeowner people in in more and more distress and more and more trouble about holding on to the home they have you drive around and see signs about a foreclosed home for sale in addition to that you know of people having a problem making ends meet the second situation related to that is the fact that many many people are now staying away from the market they're simply not buying homes and the result of that or the reason for that is the sense of insecurity about where we are today in this very difficult moment so as a result of that you find that homes are not being purchased this is having an impact then on market prices where home prices are in a  decline and fewer and fewer buyers are in the marketplace as a result of all of these things they have been significant economic impacts on the state of florida so what begins as a problem to a family and a significant problem heartbreaking problem becomes a compounding problem when it impacts the entire economy of a state like florida state of florida is greatly dependent on homebuilding for its economy and that's a fact so when i talked this past few days  to people in the industry i'm hearing from home builders who are saying i've had to lay people off at the layoff substantial numbers of the workforce large homebuilders of laid off hundreds and hundreds of people that impact on the economy is significant so the florida situation i think is somewhat revealing of what is happening across the country which is why is i come back here more determined than ever that we have got to act that this is a time for the congress to take strong and significant action to try to have an impact on what is at the terrier a the situation you know everybody keeps talking about when we have hit bottom when is the housing market has hit bottom well i'm not sure if we've hit bottom yet or not i hope we have and i hope we're beginning that as sending situation back but the bottom line is that we've got to act and there are things that we can do and there are areas in which we must act i would isolate them into three areas one is the area that impacts the homeowner themselves bond was talking about about home counseling about getting people help about workouts the fact of the matter is that it is in the best interest of a financial institution to work out along with a hurting homeowner dennet is to turn that into foreclosure nobody wants to have a a foreclosed home on their inventory what they want is a homeowner continuing to make their payments we have to work their own housing counseling we also have to do the f h a modernization of this center from connecticut my chairman  we we've worked hard to get f h a done we've got to get that done that's going to help families by making the f h a a more active player in this current marketplace is going to bring f h a into into play by allowing them to do larger loans by allowing them to be more flexible in the loans that they do f h a secure is a good first step we need more flexibility in f h a secure we need to make sure that even families who already have gotten in trouble but who are not desperate yet who have not gotten to the point of  closure or who have gotten behind to be able to utilize f h a secure why do we do that because this is going to allow families to get into an f h a mortgage that is going to then get them hopefully into a mortgage that they can carry and out of trouble we need to stabilize values when to make sure that the decline in home values stops because as that happens the equity value in homes continues to decline and that is not a good thing for the economy as a whole so there are some ideas how can we help with these ideas where one i like a lot is senator i systems idea to try to provide a tax credit try to lower the m and tori of an occupied homes if these homes are an occupy because as has happened in florida many many were built that are today not be in bought we need to get the market back going we need to get people back into buying homes so we need to make sure that they have an opportunity to do so in an encouragement of a tax credit i think is that it will go a long ways towards doing that a second related problem is liquidity i talked to  homebuilders who are telling me that they've got some buyers that cannot find a loan that the banks are not lending money money has tightened so as money has tightened we need to do those things that will provide more liquidity into the marketplace which is why i am very fearful that cramming down mortgages is not a good idea to provide more liquidity in fact that would work against providing more liquid see also for us to look at the long term of this and there's need for regulatory reform after talks about the regulation of the government sponsored enterprises fannie mae and freddie mac home loan banks we need a stronger more effective regulator i've been preaching this is i was at her this is an important concept whose time has more than come we have increased the loan limits of the g s e's and we have now lowered their capital requirements to twenty percent as we have done that it is necessary that we look at a stronger regulator of fail and the rules today are not up to them up to par for what we need is or trillion dollar companies of incredible importance to play a very significant role in getting us out of the current market dilemma that we're in and in order for them to be stronger for them to have the kinds of investor confidence that they must have i think a stronger regular it would be a great step forward i also commend the secretary of treasury for the proposals that he's made on a broader regulatory  financial financial world i think some of these ideas that also be in discussion in the congress are important we need to consider them and many of them need to be adopted they may be on a on a second tier i'm looking at more immediate things that we can do up the housing market and to move forward in that regard i was going to close by simply touching on the importance for us to work in a bipartisan fashion delighted to see chairman dodd here he and i have had conversations it is important that we look to working with one another how we can find the best of all of ideas to come together was something that's going to help the american people the people of florida desperately need help this is a problem as i say not only to to the end consumer not only to the homeowner not only to the family that tasted that dream of home ownership and got into a home and now are seeing the nightmare of losing it before their eyes but also to those people who are now either have lost a job or maybe fearful of losing a job the entirety of the economy that depends so much on housing being a component part of this economy is really part of what we need to address i hope in the next days that we will come to some understanding of how to move forward in a bipartisan fashion to work towards a solution that's going to help the american people get back to that strong vibrant economy that we've known in the in the recent years and also to continuing to grow that dream of home ownership for more and more american families i thank the president and the floor first seven connecticut friends before he leaves the floor i want to i want to say  to my colleague from florida i didn't hear a thing he said i missed the opening few sentences but i think i got about ninety nine percent of his comments and and we have had good conversations privately over the last number of  days but the senate in florida probably did not tell you is that in a previous life it was the secretary of housing and urban affairs he was the person responsible for an awful lot of the housing issues in the country and so he and it is in a life even prior to that was involved in the state of florida and housing issues and had a wonderful record of caring deeply about homeownership for those who would have had the opportunity acquire homes and so there's a history in his private life as well as his public life of understanding and caring about these issues and the very last point he made is the one that i addressed as well this is not a time for partisan politics we need to do get a job we need to start working immediately that we should have been at this weeks and weeks ago in my view but there's  can do about what happened weeks and weeks ago there is something we can do about today and my hope would be in the coming hours that we would do just that no other issue is as important as this one in the senator from florida is outlined in a broad way some of the very issues that need to be addressed and i agree with him and so i thank you immensely for his commitment to this and his willingness to sit down and see if we can pull together a package here may not solve every problem but i was saying earlier to some folks talking earlier and while you want to be careful about drawing too tight a comparison the one word that's missing in all of this was to present the word confidence confidence confidence to that family in florida or connecticut confidence of that that that investment banker confidence of that  that person involved in the in the equity markets globally the word confidence how do we restore that giving people a sense of confidence about where we're going and then that period that we've history is written by you is about f hundred thirty three to june one hundred thirty three that first one hundred days it was nothing orderly about it was rather chaotic quite candidly about the roosevelt administration in the midst of a major economic crisis and the very day of franklin roosevelt closing their doors all across the country with that line nothing to fear but fear itself and that administration was trying everything they could to restore confidence and while a lot of their ideas didn't work were ill conceived in some cases there was a sense across the country that their government was working on their problems they were people in charge trying to make a difference in their lives we're not in a great depression we're in a recession not a great depression but we could end up in a very similar set of circumstances if we don't begin to act and the american people want to know we're acting that we understand what they're going through and that their government both of the legislative and executive branch is worried about them and doing their very best to make a difference in their lives and that's what really this is all about so this morning mr president want to just lay out if i can what is chairman of the banking committee we've been doing we're trying to get done and i hopeful in this coming week in this pivotal week we can make a difference and stepping forward so i rise to speak is warning about a matter of great importance i want to thank senator bond bond of missouri he and i worked on so many issues together over the last number of years we coauthored the family medical leave act many years ago mr president and most recently we coauthored together the hundred eighty billion dollars of counseling dollars to go out and do everything we could to assist families who governs out of a bad deal when it was their own fault of the fault of a broker but trying to work that out so they can stay in their homes and those dollars have made a huge difference i might add and so i thank senator bond for his understanding of this very early on and the importance of that significant step as he has i think pointed out and i agree with him this issue is no longer just a housing issue no longer just a foreclosure each you really need to pick up this morning's business section of the local newspaper the worst quarter for stocks since  just read the first paragraph of that story and the first paragraph says u s stocks ended the first quarter with the steepest loss in the early six years as turmoil in the financial markets showed increasing signs spilling over into wider economy and debate turned from whether a recession was coming to how deep it would be very accurate state this is spilling over the contagion is no longer just limited to housing in foreclosures it's now spilling over into every aspect of our condo and spilling over the shores of our country having global implications so the hour is now the time is now to come together and make a difference on this issue so i rise this morning to talk about this brief y about a month ago majority leader reid brought a bill to the floor the foreclosure prevention act unfortunately progress and that bill was blocked and we were unable even to debate this bill let alone vote on since then the challenges facing the american homeowners have only gotten worse as the president in the month of february alone the month of february two hundred twenty three thousand six hundred fifty one more americans entered foreclosure according to reality trac a company that collects real estate related data in the country that amounted to present the seven thousand seven hundred twelve foreclosures on a daily basis seven thousand seven hundred today yesterday tomorrow seven thousand roughly seven thousand almost eight thousand people will be in the process of losing their homes in america eight thousand people every single day unless we act and do something about it we gathered listen to people who managed to barristers with all due respect i feel badly of what they lost a lot of money but they're not losing their homes these people almost eight thousand every day are and so i'm going to come to this floor every single day and i'm going to recite the number on a daily basis of people losing their homes until we do what i think we ought to do to step up to the plate make a difference for them that foreclosure rate continues and all indications are that it is actually increasing mr president almost two hundred forty thousand more americans will have been foreclosed during the month of march u b s reports that foreclosures of this magnitude are on a par with the severity of foreclosures during the great depression is foreclosure rates are not simply high  relative terms there are record levels according to the more you get mortgage bankers association the mortgage bankers data show that more than one in every fifty homes one in every fifty with a mortgage in this country is in foreclosure one in fifty homes foreclosure rates have been growing at record levels for some time unfortunately foreclosures are increasing because people are continue to struggle obviously to make their payments the data tells us that one in every thirteen homes with a mortgage has fallen behind on their mortgage one in thirteen falling behind every day that goes by without x means that more families are losing their homes compounding the problem all nationally  prices continue to fall home prices are down ten percent nationwide over the past twelve months and continue to fall this is the first time we've experienced such a deep and widespread decline in the cline and home prices since the great depression of the nineteen late one nine hundred twenty s one nine hundred thirty s miral it is predicting that home prices will fall by fifteen percent this year and another ten percent next year quite possible that over the past month the senate last debated this issue that an american who owns a two hundred thousand dollars home has seen the value of that home fall by five thousand dollars in one month of a repeat that if you have a high i'm worth two hundred thousand dollars in the last month house at home has lost five thousand dollars in value and may do that every single month for the coming months at five thousand dollars of well american families of lost we in this body have been waiting to even discuss potential legislation to address these problems while we've waited our country has lost more jobs as well we learned than a month of february american economy lost over one hundred thousand private sector jobs lost private sector jobs in each of the last three months of job losses money at the same time that mortgage payments are rising families are falling further and further behind their ability to pay the mortgage make car payments buy groceries and educate their children at the same time the cost of these essentials is rising inflation mr president risen by four percent over the past year far outstripping growth in wages american families have to do a lot more with a lot less they have to find a way to pay the bills keep rising while the value of their home keeps falling and their job prospects continue to decline it's no wonder that the consumer confidence continues to fall reaching record lows that have not been seen by some measures since the early one nine hundred seventy s almost forty years ago we are clearly in the midst of a recession and as a man called that yet by the professionals that's what it is the only question we have is how deep and how long run the answer to that question lies in part what we do in this body to confront the challenges that we face the legislation that is before us which in my colleagues which a colleague of the majority leader has brought to the floor will help address the problems we are facing in the housing and mortgage market in a number of ways and again senator mel martinez and i commend him as outlined very briefly the parameters here but let me in a few minutes and go over them once again these are not new and revolutionary ideas by the way and that many of these ideas already enjoy very broad bipartisan support at least based on articles that have been written by the american enterprise institute comments by the chairman of the federal reserve for comments by the secretary of treasury comments by colleagues here and then the other body as well so we're not talking about some radical new proposals here untested without much thought going into the question is whether or not we can sit down over the next few hours and package something together here and then speak with one voice to the american people saying we hear you for those seven thousand eight thousand people you deserve at least as much of our attention as ben stearns or j p morgan  and if we can't do that every day those numbers go up eight thousand a day eight thousand every day people losing their homes or falling into foreclosure so that's what i hope we're going to be able to do here these ideas i said involve counseling services again i thank senator bond for his efforts where we join together to provide resources that are working this event just last week i spent the week as most of our colleagues did back home in my my state and this issue was the dominant issue we have in one city alone in my state bridgeport connecticut between five and six thousand foreclosures in the largest city in my state i had the raid the most bizarre two headlines on the same day in my state connecticut ranks number one in perhaps earnings in the country number two six thousand foreclosures in the city of bridgeport here great affluence on one hand because some of done very very well and then people struggling to keep their noses above water on the other but i listened to a number of people who came to a hearing we had bridgeport with the mayor talked about how counseling services have been able to allow them to work with their lender a financial arrangement so they c stay in their homes they're paying a mortgage they can afford the lender is getting his money not as much as they would have liked a lot better than getting nothing with a foreclosed boarded up property creating the kind of blight in that neighborhood that happens with foreclos need to see more as part of the leader's package dealing with bankruptcy reform improving disclosures increasing the availability of mortgage revenue bonds and appropriating emergency funds to local communities struggling with foreclosed and abandoned propert i want to come in the majority leader for his leadership in putting this kind of a package together but i know there are other ideas out there and in fact some of these ideas need to be moderated or fixed in some way but that only happens when we work together here  sit down and try and iron out these differences and then step up with our proposals and then allow others who want to offer some ideas that is a debate heard is well it takes time it's laborious but that's the job of this body not to sit there and walk away and do nothing that's not an option and then you ought not to be an option either so we need to roll up our sleeves and go to work these provisions can make a real difference as to present homeowners and the communities in which they live and obviously our national economy as well they commitment of taxpayer money thirty billion dollars the senate banking committee will conduct a hearing later this week and the other on this particular proposal hear this particular arrangement and other recent actions by the treasury the federal reserve and other federal agencies to address the recent turmoil in the financial markets without prejudging the outcome of our oversight and investigation of this unprecedented commitment of taxpayer money one thing is clear it's now time to turn our attention to main street as bold as the action was to help wall street we must be bold to help millions of americans live on main street and that is i said a moment ago is not enough and frankly failure isn't one i do every day that passes creates new risks for the financial future of our nation we cannot hope that this problem is going to go away and solve itself our competitors in the global economy the only one will benefit if we do nothing to effectively stem the rising tide foreclosures that are hurting families communities the credit markets and the overall economy the question is not whether we should act but how majority leader is laid out what i believe are a series of responsible policies that will help american families to keep their homes over that again one hundred eighty million it done before it's two hundred million this proposal before us here that could make a huge difference of these nonprofit organizations that are out there working with lenders enviro and bringing them together for these workouts  affectively fighting foreclosures we must limit the damaging impact that foreclosures impact on communities that is why we need to help our local communities cope with the serious economic and social problems that vacant properties create and again every one of my colleagues understands this i don't need to go through a long description of what happens when you've got vacant properties in your towns and our communities and neighborhoods it's axiomatic what happens every one of us understand it first of all understand the value of the neighbors houses go down  as i mentioned earlier watching a five percent decline in a house worth two hundred thousand dollars in a month alone merely because of what's happened in declining prices throw in a foreclosed property into that mix and obviously you get even a further deterioration here property values for each own located within a one eighth of a square mile of one foreclosed house an average city block as to present in most of our cities is one eighth of a square mile that's a rough calculation if you have one foreclosure and that one city block every other home in the block is current on their mortgage obligations the value of every other home in that block declines immediately by one percent and crime rates go up in that neighborhood by two percent that happens immediately here so property values decline on an average of five thousand dollars with one foreclosure in that neighborhood you have forty four point five million homes adjacent to sub prime foreclosed properties forty four and a half forty four to fifty million adjacent properties next to foreclosed property let me repeat the statistic again every day almost a thousand people in this country are going into foreclosure two hundred forty thousand in the month of february and exists at least if not more that number in the month of march eight thousand a day when that happens elder property owners suffer so it isn't just the family in the foreclosed property it's that hardworking family that lives down the block it's also paying a price that is because we're not asking to try and come up with a way to get people to work out something that allows them to stay in their homes localities are losing close to four and a half billion dollars in property taxes again this is axiomatic you end up with foreclosed properties you end up losing your tax base fire protection police social services schools all pay a price as well there's a domino effect  president and that's what senator bond was talking about earlier this is no longer just a foreclosure problem it's far deeper far wider and growing by the day by the day and this is exactly what happens when you end up neighborhood what can happen to other properties and that in that area and so that's why the issue of adding some additional assistance i have recommended four billion dollars that go out to the community development block grants targeted specifically or restoring abandoned properties to making them more marketable providing assistance to the communities as a lot of money four billion dollars if not thirty billion because that's what we're on the line for in the  morgan chase deal that was cut over the weekend that deal we never voted on and here that's a deal they cut the federal reserve has the authority apparently to do that so i'm not asking for twenty nine or thirty billion i'm asking for four bi to go back to our cities and communities to help mayors in towns that urban areas rural areas where this is happening provide some help for them so they can take these properties and put them in better shape so they can be they can be sold the leaders will also includes  a finance committee provision that would allow state housing finance agencies the is proceeds from mortgage revenue bonds to help extend mortgage credit to people now trapped in predatory loans as well as to do homeowners but also help expand affordable rental housing helping people who need a place to go if they kate hanni hang onto their homes this provision by the way is one that i heard over and over again and you hear in every state you go and they reach the max they need really if that  house housing finance authority is going to be able to provide the kind of relief they need this is an idea that has broad bipartisan support i'm told in the finance committee senator baucus senator grassley care about it leave it's the right step to take senator john  for a workout to occur in bankruptcy with a primary residence is involved you can have a work out where years secondary residences involved or farmers involved senator durbin i believe rightly says life that the the case shouldn't in bankruptcy the courts be allowed to do something out here that allows people to stay in their homes or to be able to afford their new mortgage there's a lot of resistance to this and there's an argument on the other side not going to suggest there isn't but my hope is that we can work something out in this area this cram down as it's called has provoked a lot of objection to this bill and that one provision alone but i'm committed to doing everything we can to work this out in a way that allow for a vote to occur here and to work something out that would allow us to do something in this area jack reed of rhode island has a provision in the legislation that would improve disclosures to borrowers and make those disclosures available sooner in the mortgage shopping process that version will help borrowers avoid the kinds of abusive loans that they are leading to many to foreclosure today and i commend senator reed for that propos l again i think a pretty non controversial provision i understand there are other ideas as well this is not all comprehensive here again senator martinez mentioned one the johnny isaacson arguing for an idea has some value here in foreclosed properties to get someone to move into them to provide some sort of a tax break here that will lure people in with the property has been foreclosed the owner occupied is out here we need to get that property moving and again ideas of value and we ought to be allowed to debate discuss and possibly include that as a package as well i want to mention a few of the steps that i hope we might consider as well in addition to the isaacson proposed we need to finish the job enact legislation to modernize f h a senator shelby and i are working at this barney frank the congress of massachusetts the chairman of the house financial services committee has been doing a great job along with his committee members my office we can resolve a few remaining issues on the modernization of f h a we've got about nine hundred eight that are high cost states we want to make sure that f h a can do business in those states as well my hope is this issue we can work out something to the satisfaction of all who are involved that they'll pass this body ninety three to one late last year and we've been working with the house  be well regulated can expand their efforts to help people in addition to threaten i believe we need to establish a new way to deal with the press is a wave of foreclosures and this is the legislation i've offered called hope for homeowners act of two thousand and eight the legislation closely mirrors approach recommended by the chairman of the federal reserve ben bernanke and has been approached by people across the ideological spectrum including american enterprise institute the center for american progress this legislation is not a battle out at all it would provide no windfall to anyone if there's a lender takes a haircut but you're going to keep people in their home the borrower presiding officer like the haircut analogy i can see the borrower is well would end up having to pay a eyes by paying insurance on the property they've got to stay in the home in order to qualify that is it's not going to be easy on them but nonetheless we believe it allows for a bottom to be achieved a floor here we think this will help some people facing foreclosure but more importantly our as of partly it provides a floor and until we get to a floor of the foreclosure crisis if you're not going to find capital beginning to flow again so this idea of voluntary program only going to owner occupied residences not speculators and frankly not people who never should have gotten a mortgage in the first place so it's targeted it's designed to keep people in their homes and provide that floor that we're looking for here i hope something like that could be included in this as well because we need to deal with the problem of credit if you don't address the credit issue you're not addressing the core of this problem that only address the effects of the problem is not to address the underlying issue and that is an seizing if you will the capital needs to flow again this idea we believe could do just that and so my hope is in the coming days here we can enact something very much like that it's an idea that congressman frank and i have talked about i raised this idea several months ago and i'm delighted that so many people across the spectrum have said this is a good idea it was tried actually with the president back forty fifty years ago in a different form than what we're suggesting here but nonetheless could make a difference there are number of other things that we might consider but more importantly senator martinez said we need to get to work together on this we cannot wait another day almost eight thousand foreclosures today eight thousand yesterday eight thousand tomorrow and everything today maybe worse if we don't a that's what this chart points to that requires our attention and our serious energy here to make a difference so that i hope in the coming hours see we can to reach an agreement here to go forward to allow us to debate these issues and offer some sound ideas will offer the american people and others involved in this issue the word confidence that their congress their united states senate their government is not sitting idly by it hoping the problem of miraculously go away where working at their problem we understand what they're going through we care about it we want to make a difference for them that's the challenge wars i believe we can do this this is not that heavy a job to get done a simple tomorrow will decide it's deserving of our time and attention senator from california i want to say senator dodd so much for his great leadership on this issue and the reason i very much wanted to speak this morning is because california is on the front lines of this crisis we've got about twenty five percent of all the foreclosures in our state and i want to show you senator where we rank in terms of the cities we make up seven of the top ten highest for countryside there riverside san bernardino which is east of los angeles one of the fastest growing areas and by the way the place where we're all of the freight goes through to get to the rest of the country as it comes in from los angeles bakersfield is number seven vallejo fairfield eight and sacramento right near our capital nine so we have seven of the top ten hires for closure  filing rates nationwide and the reason i stress it is because the things i'm about to say are not theoretical thing i've seen them happening i held five roundtable discussions in in the various parts of my state in many of these communities and everything that senator dodd is saying about what occurs in a community is right on target because when you start with one foreclosure and a house gets boarded up and then someone else puts their house up for sale and it's there and suddenly you have a circumstance where crime is going up properties are going down it's a vicious cycle suddenly people owe more on their  e then the home is worth a very dangerous circumstance and the way i would describe it senator at thanking you so much is is this this crisis keeps getting away from us because you know while this administration definitely cares about wall street and by the way i used to work on wall street i think what they did made sense but the fact is where are they when it comes to my communities to your communities to the communities all over the country that are struggling why no they bring the same sense of purpose to this and today we're going to see if our republican friends have a change of heart because of course they stopped us the last time we tried to do this the commonsense things that are in your bill and now i guess it's the leadership bill is well i think you sent i know you need to rush us but i  just think that this bill is so sensible mr president it provides two hundred million dollars in additional funding for housing counselors and let me tell you anecdotally what i know i've spoken to counselors when the counselors sit down with the with the mortgage lender and they sit down with the homeowner miracles happen and anecdotally i could tell you about fifty percent of the cases are resolved now times have changed in the old days and i would say that's when i bought my house the old days you had the banker down the street and if you wanted to refinance you visited the banker down the street and you told him the purpose of the refinance maybe you wanted to borrow on the equity of the home because you wanted to send a child to school maybe you wanted to add  a new bedroom expand the house do some landscaping and it was a very much a face to face situation but because of the way the markets have changed a lot of people don't even know who hold onto their mortgage that mortgage may have been securitized may have been put inside a big package of other things maybe sitting somewhere in a hedge fund they don't know who actually holds their mortgage anymore so you get a counsellor who understands how to go about following this trail and it makes a huge difference because one would think and i certainly would that it's everybody's benefit to save the home  only the lender the homeowner the community so counselors are important we provide four billion in community development block grants for localities so they can get involved as part of the solution you know we are here in washington the city council people the mayors the county supervisors the governors and the rest they're on the ground where all this is happening give them some tools and give them some standards and let them have a chance to resolve some of this allow bankruptcy judges to modify loans on principle residences right now i was stunned to find out and most of my constituents are that if you declare bankruptcy and you to court the judge can do a lot of refinancing to kind of straighten you out but he can't touch the principal home if you have a second home with their home a yacht a car all that can be refinanced but the judges have been blocked now i know there are some on the other side of the aisle that don't like this provision well if you don't like it please explain why because it doesn't make sense they say it'll raise interest rates it's just not true the way this provision has been modified but if you want to change it then vote to proceed to this bill and then fix that provision don't stop us from going to this we provide an additional ten billion in tax free bonds for housing finance agencies to refinance the prime loans this is just another very good way to set up an agency that can help you out of your mess you want to stay in your home and you prove that you can stay in it you have the financial wherewithal you can go to this to get these bo increases transparency and accountability by simplifying disclosure on mortgage documents we all know that's key and we allow struggling companies to apply current losses to tax returns from prior profitable years and this has hit home builders very hard this downturn and they need this help with uncle sam in the tax code so i just want to say to my colleagues who may be listening maybe there's one or two that to stop us from going to this bill is very hurtful to the american people it is very harmful to the american people experts are predicting that over two million americans with sub prime loans including more than four to sixty california lose their home let's let's grab this crisis finally by the tail and pulled toward us and resolve it don't let it get away further from us because i can tell you since we are in many ways th ground zero of this crisis it is a very sad thing to watch what is happening and we have the ability to do a lot and this is a modest bill and it is a good bill and it certainly doesn't spend as much  as the bailout of wall street which again i think was a good idea but we certainly need to know more facts about it and we certainly need to give the same attention and concern to the middle class of this great country i could tell you that from all the meetings that i held around my state people are looking to us and they're not going to understand it when a colleague votes no to proceed to a bill because they didn't like one out of the fix things in it  it just doesn't make any sense and i want to give you one more look at my the crisis in my state and this chart jeff this shows you nationwide why that there have been two hundred twenty three thousand plus filings for folks foreclosure that's one in every five hundred fifty seven homes nationwide and that is a sixty percent jump from zero seven in my state which is a huge state about thirty seven thirty eight million people now we saw fifty three thousand plus filings one in every two hundred forty two homes and an increase of one hundred thirty one percent for most of from zero six  zero seven to zero eight and then we break it down by counties here and we see the desperate situation that some of our counties and cities are going through so we've already made some progress i want to thank my who's in the stimulus package we did a few things that helped our state one of them in particular was raising the conforming loans by fannie and freddie that was very very helpful and  we also we also have moved to work to get more counselors out there but there's not enough councilors out there so there's no question it is time for us to act you know we face i don't know what it is now sixty seventy fili busters by my republican friends and they have every single right to do it but they also know i know they know this that they will take the blame for this if nothing gets done so you know i understand and i say to my friends that you don't like everything on our list here i totally get it and by the way there are things i that are missing from this list that i would like to add but i'm not going to vote no to go to solve this crisis because there's something on here that i feel is missing so in conclusion the words everybody waits for when they enter speaks it is our it is our turn to step forward and if we fail to do so we're rather irrelevant to this country if we if we cannot have the courage to cast a vote to go to solve the housing crisis we are irrelevant to this country when every leading economist tells us that it is the housing crisis that is at the the three subjects one judicial confirmations secondly the budget resolution and third the housing situation first as to the confirmation of judges that we ought to be moving ahead on a judicial confirmations we have a situation where there has not been one confirmation of a federal judge this year  since september twenty fifth of last year there has only been one hearing for a circuit judge and that was on february twenty first in the midst of a recess a very have only been two hearings for district court judges six nominees have been heard four are on the agenda of the comparison between what has happened with president bush and president clinton shows a decisive imbalance which requires prompt action by the senate on the confirmation of president bush's judges during the last two years of president clinton fifteen circuit judges were confirmed compared to six for the last two years so far of the bush administration during the last two years of president clinton's administration fifty seven  has and so far during president bush's two terms fifty seven circuit judges have been to infirm and two hundred thirty seven district judges have been confirmed now the statistics can be argued in many many ways but i think it is hard to overcome the basic conclusion that it is unacceptable to have no federal confirmation no confirmations of a federal judge in the entire year so far in two thousand and eight three months of expired and it isn't satisfactory to have only one hearing for a circuit judge the past two decades during the last two years of president reagan's administration the senate was controlled by the opposite party and the stall took place then during the last two years of president bush george h w bush the first president bush again during the last two years of his administration the judges were stall republicans retaliated with gusto during the last six years of president clinton's administration and exacerbated the warfare on judges topping and the threat of the nucular or constitutional option to change the filibuster rules it was open warfare in this chamber generous finally worked out through the so called gang of fourteen  washington post has a editorialized on the subject to this effect in december of two thousand and seven the post said quote the senate should act in good faith to fill vacancies not as a favor to the president but out of respect for the residents businesses defendants and victims of crime in the region and the fourth circuit covers two nominees mr conrad and steve matthews should receive confirmation hearings as soon as possible the post further editorialized about another fourth circuit nominee mr blocking blocking mr rosen strange confirmation hearing would elevate ideology and ego above substance and merit and it would be were unfairly pain allies a man who people on both sides of this question grae is well qualified for judge so what we are dealing with here is not just politics in the senate we are not dealing with just politics in the senate we are dealing with the rights of residents as noted by the post  businesses of defendants and victims of crime by the failure to move ahead and confirm judge and that i suggest is just a just totally unacceptable i emphasize that the blame rests on both parts as this pattern has been carried out for the past two decades and each time it has been exacerbated it has been intensified i supported qualified judges during the administration of president clinton because i thought it was inappropriate to tie them up and i thought the democratic caucus i thought the democratic president was correct in seeking confirmation of his judge and now i believe the republican caucus is correct in saying that it is inappropriate to be blocking the confirmation of federal judges where no judge has been confirmed yet this year in the federal courts and only one circuit court hearing has been held in the past six months buster or otherwise to stop judicial nominations and it hurts the country it hurts the people who are trying to get their cases decide it hurts let me get this the judicial process is fundamental in our society and it is being thwarted by the track ticks which have become a business as usual in the united states senate so i hope we will be able to resolve this matter i hope we will be able to technical rules and that would be even more disastrous perhaps more disastrous but we've got to find a way out of this i suggest because it is totally unacceptable as it is running today without objection so ordered i submit a resolution which would modify a budget process to bring some sanity to the united states senate as we consider the budget resolution on march the thirteenth less than a month ago we took up the budget resolution world's greatest deliberative body during the time from eleven fifteen a m on the thirteenth until two a m on the fourteenth the place was bedlam absolute absolute two minutes equally divided so the proponent had a full minute that may be a little long for speeches in the house of representatives but it's not in the united states  opposite side had had one minute and it was impossible to hear what was going on in the chamber if you tried to listen to get the gravel none of what was going on if just simply  committee senator feinstein about doing something something about it and to my staff and i have done some research and we find that a resolution had been submitted a proposal had been not yet have it worked asked whether he will co sponsor because we've been in the period of recess for the past two weeks but senator byrd is renowned for his expertise on parliamentary matters and the essence of the resolution would provide that first degree amendments would have to be printed prior to the tenth hour of debate would have to be filed prior to the tenth hour of debate then second degree amendments would have to be filed prior to the twentieth hour of debate then the resolution would be set aside for one day prior to the fortieth hour of debate so  the amendments could be printed in the congressional record for those who may be watching on c span it is impossible to deal with an amendment which  has not been filed and printed so that staff and senators can review it and when the amendments are offered as there is a right to offer them under the existing procedures on the spur of the moment nobody can follow them one minute of explanation is totally insufficient if you can hear if you can hear there was one complex amendment which was offered with respect to the city of berkeley to take away there are earmarks in their grants and i happened to be on the other end of the chamber of the time and actually couldn't time the procedure jurors that have been used on the budget resolution have taken have taken two forms which have really subverted the process one is the sense of the senate resolution and the second the second is the resolution on deficit neutral reserve funds to try to bring it within the confines of the budget res full statement be included in the record at the close of my comments without objection sort and the step the full statement has the reference to amendment forty two ninety nine which was offered which was on prescription drugs doesn't have anything to do with the budget resolution but it was the sense of the senate and this is just a last word here of substantive matters which are offered which have no place on the budget resolution by prepared statement also refers to amendment forty two thirty one which refers to immigration a detailed proposal now many of these if not most of these amendments are gotcha amendments i'm getting a lot of agreement from the distinguished presiding officer for those if anyone is watching on c span to a gotcha amendment is an amendment that compels people to vote on complex questions which can be used on a thirty second commercial one of the difficulties of the campaign practice is to be able to defend your votes and it's sometimes hard to defend  to the floor for consideration now that's the way the senate supposed to function that's what makes the senate arguably the world's greatest deliberative body but not when you have  are offered on the spur of the moment with no opportunity to know what's in the amendment and all of these votes are recorded and try to explain a gotcha amendment as to why you voted certain way senator we had some discussions on the floor about perhaps limiting the number of amendments with the certification by the two leaders that you had a germane amendments but one way or another we  years in the thirty's so that we ought to avoid this kind of a process and redo our our procedures under the budget resolution which president lies consent that the next part of my  on the motion to invoke cloture on legislation which has been filed at the desk by the majority leader and this involves a number of proposals some of which are under consideration by the judiciary committee at the present time i have the final legislation caption senate bill twenty one thirty three  which offers relief to homeowners who are facing bankruptcy on the so called variable interest loans homebuyers are sometimes surprised to find that their mortgage mortgage and i believe that in this situation there is a good basis to authorize through legislation to have the bankruptcy courts be able to inquire into the circumstances of that loan and to adjust the sometimes there are it is deception sometimes it may even across the fraud lie and the appropriate practice in my view would be to allow the bankruptcy courts to consider these matters on change the principle sound and i'm opposed to that approach because that will have the effect of discouraging lenders from providing capital for home mortgages s the reason for that rule i believe we ought to be acting on the issues confronting us on housing but i am very much concerned that on the current state of the record  the procedures to be followed will preclude amendments of such is my interest in offering an amendment with the substance of my bill twenty one thirty three i think the better practice would be to work through the com and regular order would suggest that that is a better practice to have it come out of committee where in the process of having a markup with later have a committee report and would be a much more conducive to appropriate deliberation than having a measure filed under rule fourteen works lodged at the desk where there have not been hearings there's not been an analysis of a markup and there's not been a committee report now if it is possible to  amendments i would consider supporting cloture but if you have a situation where the majority leader is going to fill the tree and not allow amendments then i'm opposed to that procedure would offer amendments in february of last year more than a year ago i introduced a resolution to change the standing rules so the same person cannot offer a first degree amendments and  second degree amendment a change of the rules which would preclude a majority leader who has priority of recognition from filling the so called trades or prevent others from offering offering amendments  not acted on that resolution but i think that is an important piece of business that our rules ought to be changed so that they majority leader through his right track precedent to recognition could not the in the position to fill the tree and preclude the offering of amendment so i'm open as to what's going to happen on the closure of vote this afternoon but certainly if there is not an opportunity colleague from utah is on the floor why i believe this is republican time at the moment but the parliamentary inquiry are we still are on republican time that i phone of the distinguished senator from colorado without objection sort of the senator from colorado i would ask unanimous consent that after i speak for up to fifteen minutes that senator hatch be recognized for up to fifteen minutes and then following senator hatch senator durbin for fifteen minutes and then senator reed from rhode island for the remainder of the democratic time and if there is a republican to speak between  senator durbin and senator reid if that republican senator be recognized without objection so mr president i come to the floor today once again to urge my colleagues to began very serious work that is needed to address the housing crisis of america the news simply keeps getting worse home prices continue to decline deeply home sales are reaching record low and the resulting shock to our broader financial system simply keeps getting worse in the two weeks since we adjourned here in washington we thought of the federal reserve act to bail out a major investment bank by facilitating the purchase of bear stearns by j p morgan this marks the first time the first time in history that the fed had acted to rescue a financial institution of this kind and it did so because of the impact that bear stearns collapse would have had on the entire economy just last week it was reported that home prices in the twenty largest metropolitan statistical areas suffered the largest drop in history over ten percent and one year in some cities such as miami las vegas and phoenix the drop was as high as eighteen or nineteen percent and yet because the republican filibuster here in this chamber two weeks ago the senate has failed to act to deliver meaningful solutions to this crisis which is at the center of the economic storm that i the middle class of america its president and when you look at the headlines they keep coming from usa today battered home prices keep toppling from the new york times slump moves from wall street to main street from the law street journal housing bank troubles deepen the washington post mortgage foreclosures reach an all time high mr president when we voted on the a foreclosure prevention act several weeks ago the bad news since then has in fact gotten worse mr president this is a scene that is all too familiar across our states all across america families are feeling the pain of the housing crunch priced reduce always on the sale because they have been foreclosed upon and it's not just the families w being foreclosed upon it is their neighbors whose home values have the clients deeply as a result of the foreclosures in the neighborhood as i noted earlier it was reported last week that home prices in the twenty major metropolitan areas the client over ten percent between january of two thousand and seven and january of two thousand and eight price reduced price reduced price you do so that is not a sign that any homeowner wants to see on their land or on their neighbor's l or on their street these are not just families who found themselves in financial situations they could not afford to climb out of these are families who bought houses between two thousand and two and two thousand and six stayed current on their payments and hoped to be able to see the value of their homes continue to appreciate but through no fault of their own these families have seen their homes their single most valuable asset  precipitous li in value as president the next chart demonstrates how widespread the problem has become in my own state of colorado these are figures from the center for responsible lending which has projected that we can see that we can expect to see troubles ahead in terms of the continuing tide of foreclosure over the next several years and how these foreclosures will  ect not only those owners of those foreclosed homes entire neighborhoods and in fact most homeowners across my state of colorado the center for responsible lending projects that in my state of colorado we will experience nearly fifty thousand additional foreclosed homes in two thousand and eight and two thousand and nine as the adjustable rate mortgages reset and as home values continue to plummet as stated on this this is the map of my wonderful state of colorado you will see that expected foreclosures are going to be right at about fifty thousand the spillover impact or surrounding homes that will suffer the client during that same time period is almost seven hundred and fifty thousand homes seven hundred fifty thousand home homes that's more than a third of the homes of the state of colorado that are going to see the climbing spiral we're go is the situation is clearly getting worse many middle class families whose budgets are already stretched thin cannot afford such a steep decline in the value of their most important asset congress the united states senate has a responsibility to act aggressively to help families stay in their homes and to stem the tide of foreclosures that continues to serve as a serious drag on our overall economy that is why we are here again today working to move on the foreclosure prevention act of two thousand and eight legislation introduced by senator reid in consultation with the chairs of the committees of jurisdiction and that legislation take several steps to provide meaningful and immediate assistance to families and communities affected by foreclosures across america and to prevent other families and communities from finding themselves in the same situation in the future the legislation does three simple things first it seeks to help families facing foreclosure the stay in their homes by expanding state's authority to issue tax exempt mortgage revenue bonds increasing funding for credit counseling and allowing bankruptcy judges to restructure to restructure mortgages second provide critical help to communities across the country that have been affected by foreclosure by increasing funding under the community development block grant program third it takes that to help families and communities avoid foreclosures in the future by requiring simplicity and transparency on mortgage documents i'm especially glad these provisions are included in the legislation that two tax related provisions that were reported out of the finance committee on a bipartisan basis as part of the bipartisan economic stimulus proposal represent important steps that provide low interest loans to homeowners seeking to refinance their mortgages and to allow a wing businesses including those in the home construction industry to carry back their losses or a longer period of time to average out their good and the i also support funding increases for credit counseling which will go a long way towards helping family families understand the financial burdens associated with taking out a long term home loan and to avoid foreclosure in my state of colorado we have already seen how beneficial these kinds of services can be last fall a consortium of government private sector nonprofit organizations launched a the colorado foreclosure hotline which connects borrowers with nonprofit housing counselors who can provide information on a borrowers option when facing foreclosure counselors can facilitate the communications between lenders and by our borrowers the hotline itself has already received over ten thousand calls in the last six months this is a sign from the foreclosure hotline in colorado and says it was first formed this consortium between the government the private sector and nonprofit organizations more than twenty nine thousand people in colorado have called this hotline this legislation would go a long ways towards helping us implement this kind of program all the way across the country mr president the american dream home ownership is today a dream which is becoming nebulous for the people of our country because a huge foreclosure crisis that we have seen across the country which has caused such a decline in home values all across america i believe it is our responsibility here in the united states senate to move forward to provide relief to these middle class families who are in danger of losing their values in their home and danger of losing their homes this is an economic stimulus program which i think is timely for us to act upon and i would hope that our colleagues join us in moving in voting yes on the motion to proceed to the housing legislation as a president i yield the floor in the senate from utah mr president the american people sent us here to get things done one of the most important things is considering voting on the president's nominations to the federal bench in the department of justice and i can put it simply we are failing  our duty let me first address the judicial confirmation process the constitution gives of the president the authority to nominate and appoint that or all judges because vision gives to the senate the role of the vice and consent as a check on the president's appointment power the senate gives the president advice about whether to appoint his judicial nominees by giving or withholding our consent we are supposed to do so through up or down votes that is what the constitution aside just to do and that's what the american people expect us to do and that is what we are failing to do for the record since i was first elected i have voted against only five of the more than fifteen hundred nominees to life tenure judicial positions that the senat considered here on the floor some of my democratic friends including those with far less seniority have voted against more than three times as many nominees of the current president alone i have strongly opposed all filibusters against judicial nomin both democrats and republicans some of my democratic friends opposed the busters of democratic nominees but hardly supported filibusters on republican nominees have not taken a partisan approach to judicial confirmations but i must say that today this body is failing to do its confirmation duty and most stages in the confirmation process in the judiciary committee and on the senate floor democrats are failing to meet not only historical standards but their own standards as well democrats have vowed not to treat president bush's nominees the way republicans they claim republicans treated president clinton's nominee i guess we can now say in one way democrats are really keeping that promise let me just refer to this on twelve appeals court nominees in his last year in the presidency last congress four times just many republicans didn't and by the way every one of those clinton nominees was confirmed  no less than ten hearings that included more than one appeals court nominee ten democrats have controlled this body under president bush the judiciary committee has not held a single one no even democrats are certainly keeping their word about not trading republican presidents any worse than democrat presidents were treated they are not treating bush the way republicans treated clinton nominees but democrats are not only failing to meet historical standards in the judiciary committee their families to make their even their own standards when i chaired the committees democrats complained about every nomination hearing that did not include an appeals court nominee with democrats in charge under president bush the judiciary committee has held nearly a dozen nomination hearings without a single appeals court nominee i want to at that time after time and always put in a court nominee to accommodate the democrats on every hearing there's already been one one this year one hearing this year that the democrats have failed and another will take place on thursday that the pictures the same here on the senate floor where democrats are failing to meet either historical standards or their own standards because the one that they've already held and the one they are holding this neighbor of them has the circuit court of appeals nominee  president bush is the fourth president in a row to face the senate controlled by the other party during his last two years in office let me refer to this chart under the under his three predecessors the senate confirmed an average of seventy five district court judges three previous presidents of this one seventy five district court nominees during the last two years in office more than half of them were confirmed during the president's final two years in office so far in the hundred tenth congress we've confirmed only six appeals court nominees for president bush now just to meet the historical average we will have to confirm forty four district court on eleven appeals court nominees and the next several months if anyone believes that will happen i have some ocean front property in the utah desert that i would like to sell them and even if we did the completely unexpected president bush would still leave office with a much smaller impact on the federal bench than his predecessor let me just refer to this terms president bush has so far appointed two hundred ninety five nice life tenured federal judges well behind president clinton who appointed three hundred forty six at this same point in his presidency the center out here spent a yarn about a supposed a republican blockade against president clinton's judicial nominees some blockade some blockade it allowed president clinton nearly to set the all time judicial appointment record and that was during a time when we controlled the committee most of the time here on the senate floor or democrats are not on the failing to meet historical standards they're also failing to meet even their own standards eight years ago when democrats were in the minority during the last year of president clinton's tenure they were crystal clear about us compare nine hundred ninety two in which there was a democrat majority in the senate and a republican president we confirmed eleven court of appeals nominees and sixty six judges in all in fact we went out in october of that year we were having hearings in september we were having people confirmed in october now let us compare one thousand nine hundred two in which there was a democrat majority in the sentence and a republican president like i say we confirmed eleven court of appeals court nominees and sixty six judgments in the judges in all in one thousand nine hundred two in fact we did go out in october of that year we were having majority to make their judicial confirmation standard they are in the majority and all they have to do is make their own standard of one hundred ninety two and thus far they have failed to do so they are failing to do so after all judiciary committee is not holding hearings on fields court nominees now if the senate is not confirming nominees now what makes anyone think we're going to be doing so in september or october as democrats once said we should vacancies x y and z is no excuse for failing to hold hearings and vote and votes on nominees to vacancies a b and c we've already heard about the so called thurman rule supposedly justifying grinding the confirmation process to a halt in this presidential election year the thurmond rule neither is the rule nor can be attributed to the late senator strom thurmond a former judiciary committee chairman here's what the democrats said about the so called t  role in two thousand when a democrat was in the white house we cannot afford the democrats said to follow the thurman rule and stop acting on these nominees now in anticipation of the presidential election in november well today is only april but it already looks like democrats are stopping acting on judicial nominees in anticipation of the presidential election that same democratic leader spoke out on the se october third two thousand just a month before the election he once again rejected the so called starman rule and use one thousand nine hundred two as a judicial confirmation standard even in a presidential election year this is what he said this is the last six months before the session ended quote that was then i want to how long this democrat controlled senate will be confirming judges for a republican president we will continue to hear the cute but misleading phrase pocket filibuster a blurb created by the democratic spin machine to somehow blame republicans for unconfirmed clinton judicial nominees our constituents may not know it but democratic colleagues certainly do that every president has nominees who do not get confirmed for a host of different reasons in the last six months or so of the presidency and otherwise but why let facts get get facts in the way of a good sound have the support of their home state senators the current and they include others who had some difficulties in their f b i reports the current judiciary committee that had to be further investigated the hundred percent one of my democratic friends has recently quoted has recently quoted colleagues saying that facts are stubborn things that are indeed none of this explains let alone excuse democrats refusal to hold hearings or votes on judicial nominees have their home state senators support the u s court of appeals for the four circuit for example is one third empty one of most important circuit courts in the country president bush the senate's nominees to four of the five vacancies on the court one of them robert conrad has the support of both home state senators our distinguished colleagues from north carolina has been nominated to a position that has been open for fourteen years the administrative office of the u s courts has designated it a judicial emergency position this body confirmed robert conrad to the u s district court just a few years ago without even having a roll call vote yet he has been waiting for more than two hundred fifty days without a hearing stephen matches likewise has the support of his home state senators our distinguished colleagues from south carolina has been waiting for more than two hundred days without a hearing the american people sent us here to do our duty and that includes getting a hearing and a vote on these nominees and i ask consent to put in the record a letter dated february thirteenth two thousand and eight signed by more than fifty grassroots organizations urging us to do our judicial confirmation to thank you mr president me briefly turn from the judicial to the executive branch and in particular to the brain to the part of justice my democratic colleagues helped drive from office several top justice department officials and yet are now slow walking confirmation of their replacements march eleventh the judiciary committee held a hearing on the nomination of grace john becker to be assistant attorney general for civil rights gray served as a counsel on my staff when i chaired the judiciary committee and has been a deputy assistant attorney general in the civil rights division for the past two years she currently heads the division in an acting capacity my judiciary committee colleagues will remember grace as a talent brilliant and dedicated lawyer a person of the highest character and integrity one of the most likable people who ever served on the committee one who served both sides i think graciously and well she received her law degree magna cum laude from georgetown where she was associate editor of the court and the u s court of appeals in the district of columbia gray spent a year in private practice before entering government service for the next decade grace served in such positions as special assistant us attorney assistant general co at the justice department grace has been supervising hundreds of lawyers in cases regarding civil rights housing discrimination religious land use education and fair lending practices grace is a special person she is the challenge of korean immigrants whose parents and siblings are all entrepreneurs in new york and new jersey she and her husband brian have been married for fourteen years and have two wonderful children grace is living the american dream and making the most of the opportunities she has found in this great country she is dedicated to making these opportunities available to others she have served the community on the board of the korean american coalition and on the fairfax county school board human rights advisory committee she has finally had her hearing but now i hear disturbing reports that she has been given literally hundreds of written questions many about matters occurring long before her tenure decisions or policies she had absolutely nothing to do with that are my call extent they're the right thing to do o confirmation duty not only to grace but there these judges that are qualified most of them are well qualified and grace and certainly well qualified to hire psychos that do with the american people sent us here today that includes giving today's session of the senate they've been approved by the majority minority leaders and i ask unanimous consent these requests be agreed to these requests be printed in the record without objection so order mr president this united states senate is an institution great constitution which guides our nation almost didn't happen but for a compromise which said that even the smallest states would at least have two senators the same as the largest states and on the senate floor that tradition continued allowing even minorities small groups and even individual senators certain rights which are not afforded to them across the rotunda in the house of representatives one of these is a filibuster where senators can take to the floor and can hold the floor object to what's going on it takes an extraordinary vote a large vote more than a majority in the senate to take the floor back from that single senator group of senators and to proceed with business these filibusters are stopped with so called cloture motions closing down the debate moving on with the amendment it takes sixty votes for cloture vote vote in other words sixty senators have to agree to stop a filibuster and move forward in the history of the united states senate the record number of filibusters for any two year period of time has been sixty to sixty two fil busters in a two year period last year the republican minority broke that record smash that record by initiating sixty two filibusters in one year sixty two times the republican minority stopped our efforts on the floor of the senate to move forward to try to change things in america sixty two times the republican party is known as the grand old party the g o p it turns out that when it comes to senate republicans g o p stands for graveyard of progress that's what they're trying to make the senate and on february twenty eighth we brought up a measure here to deal with america's housing crisis is that a serious issue is it something that the senate should take the time away from our wonderful patriotic speeches and try to address i think it is more than two million americans face foreclosure my home state of illinois record numbers of foreclosures in states like nevada and california and all over the united states foreclosures that record numbers of mortgages on homes is  an important issue for more than two million families it is because you see when a home goes into a foreclosure and is sold at lower than fair market value it affects the value of the homes in the neighborhood so when they ask you what's the value of your home senator durbin in springfield illinois you say well let's look and see some of the recent sales in his neighborhood comparable values as they call it and if around the block one of my neighbors has lost a home in foreclosure that has a negative impact on the value of my home so two million mortgage foreclosures has a ripple effect across the housing economy and diminishes the value of forty four million homes twenty two homes for every home in foreclosure and you say wild forty four million homes in a nation of three hundred million people it's still not that big a deal is it it is forty four million private residences reflect one third of all the private residences owned in america two million mortgage foreclosures and one out of three homeowners who do  their mortgage payments every single month without a problem see the values of their home go down in fact we are seeing a rising number of people in america holding a markets on their home at a value that is higher than the actual value of their home they're underwater as we say they have a debt a mortgage which is greater than the value of their home this has an impact on our overall economy over seventy percent of the people in america today when asked if they will buy a home say no and you say is that because you can't find a mortgage for your home and they say no i can find a mortgage i just don't think it's a good investment think about that statement for as long as i've been around a home was always your best investment i can remember when my wife and i stretched and squeezed and sacrificed to get our first home the proud we were we weren't sure we could make those monthly payments it was a stretch to do it but we knew it was the right thing for our kids for our family for a neighborhood and for ourselves because you know a home is going to go up in value at least that was the theory until recently now homes are going down in value and people are not buying homes sit vacant not only foreclosed homes but other homes where people are just trying to sell them to move on to a different location that to a better place and you see the signs all over america for sale for sale it's a reminder that the housing crisis which brought us into this recession is still very much an issue today on february the twenty eighth the democratic majority said to our friends on the republican side let us act like senators let us deal with an issue that has relevance to today's economy to families all over the nation we have a plan we have a proposal a housing stimulus package for five key points in it which i'll mention in a moment we want to bring that bill to the floor and we want our friends on the republican side and even democratic senators if they wish to offer amendments about housing so that their best ideas can be considered what i've just described to you sounds dangerously like the tradition of a deliberative body like the united states senate we would actually take an important american issue bring it to the floor debate it open to amendment do our best to come up with something that will pass match with the folks do in the house of representatives and maybe end up with a law a law that can strengthen our economy and that's the normal we do business or at least normal until this republican minority came to power what happened on february twenty eighth well we needed about nine republicans to join the democrats so we could move forward in the debate only one stepped up so we didn't have enough votes and so the housing stimulus package died on february twenty eighth the republican minority refused to even wait it wasn't even bring it up on the floor nothing was going to stop them from offering relative relevant amendments to this housing package they didn't even want to have an opportunity to offered those amendments they didn't want the debate i think i know why they're doing their best to make sure that this congress under the democrats ins up in the same position as the previous congress under republicans doing nothing about the issues that count for america but we're not giv up we're coming back today in about twenty minutes we'll break for lunch and after that we'll come back for a vote on the floor and we'll try to return to this housing stimulus package will give the republicans a chance to join us i say to my friends in republican side who may be watching this through c span in their offices or other places don't be afraid of a debate don't be afraid of amendments isn't that why we ran for office to address the important issues facing america to debate the merits of a good idea or a bad idea to take a vote to be on record if we're going to run away from the issue is central to the economy is the housing crisis we are really becoming irrelevant it is little wonder that the approval rating of congress is as low as it is when the republicans continue to filibuster continue to stop us from even debating something as critical as the housing crisis facing america so what does the bill do the basic bill that we're talking about here does several things in that attempt to reduce foreclosures one of the first is to make an investment in more counselors is has to be a scary moment when you receive that letter after you've missed your mortgage payment that says you're now in default you're facing foreclosure we can take your home away it some people go through a period of denial they won't look at the mail they won't answer the phone they just hope it'll all go away but it won't it gets worse others wisely say i need to talk to somebody how did i get in this mess how can i get out of this mess and the people available to talk to them are counselors who sit down and say ok don't panic you have an income how are you doing otherwise they have a lot of debt maybe we can call the bank maybe we can find a way to change the terms of your markets so you can stay there these councillors are valuable in fact they're invaluable to deal with this mortgage foreclosure crisis so one of the first things we do is to put more funds into counseling so there are people there to help those facing mortgage foreclosures we expand refinancing opportunities so that if you can't make it on your old markets let's say you have what's called an arm an adjustable rate mortgage let's say it's hit its reset point one year three years five years and now you have a new interest rate and your monthly payment just shot up so high you can't make it so what are you go well in this bill we set up some refinancing opportunities across the nation so that people who have an income who are responsible who want to keep their homes have a chance we also provide to communities funds through the community development block grants program to purchase foreclosed properties you want to see what i have seen repeatedly on the west side of chicago river by the united center where the chicago bulls play basketball there's a great little area on the west side that is just really getting a start in rebuilding neighborhoods that have been really kind of beaten up for a long time beautiful homes very nice homes smack dab in the middle of these beautiful homes is this boarded up home trash in what used to be a nice front yard it looks awful right next door to them to people who clearly care about their homes and their sits that foreclosed home smack dab in the middle it's up for auction when it goes auction it's not likely to even get fair market value and it's going to hurt the value of all the other homes in the neighborhood so one of the things that we try to do is offer communities some funds to step in on foreclosures before that house is abandon and run down in value and hurts the whole community we also expand the carry back period for businesses particularly going to help those in the housing industry who've had a rough go of it kind of weather the storm so that they can survive and jack reed of rhode island my colleague has a truth in lending disclosure requirement for real estate closings devore sets a real real estate closing you know what they give you a stack of papers like this and they keep turning the pages and say keep signing keep signing keep signing twenty minutes later you walk out the door and think what the heck that i just sign well jack reed wants to have a cover sheet that has the basics on it so everybody knows everybody's michel's it signs it so you know what your interest rate is you know what the term  you know how much you're borrowing you know if the interest rate can change you know what the monthly payment is what it could be the high point the low point is there a penalty for repayment basic things so you don't walk out of there in a mystery as to what you just signed and then there's a provision that i have in there that the markets bankers hate like the devil hates holy water why do the markets bakers hate this provision well first let me introduce you to this group the mortgage banker s where the industry that brought us this mess of subprime mortgages they were the ones who started peddling markets as it made no sense convincing people who were caught off guard or deceived  course you can afford this all interest only payments don't worry about it just take a look that monthly payment don't you worry about it and listen when it's supposed to reset the payment goes up you just come back to me but our refinance it you know these homes keep going up value forever a lot of unsuspecting people signed on some of them were elderly many of them were folks without advanced degrees in finance some of them were duped into this by come on the seven advertising but the fact is they signed on for the so called subprime mortgages well those are the folks that are going through trouble now two point two million of them and you know what a third of them just about a third of them will end up in bankruptcy court they'll go into something called chapter eleven where you walk in and say to the judge i don't know which way to turn i'm making an income i'm not out of work but i get all these debts what am i going to do in chapter eleven that bankruptcy judge can sit down and start restructuring your debts try to find a way through this mess so at the end of the day you can get it back together again about a third of the people facing foreclosure will be in that position now let's assume that you walk into that bankruptcy court and you have a number of things that you own you own your home and let's show you some examples some of them are unusual you own a ranch you want to vacation condo and you own a yacht i know most people don't own yachts but let's use us for example ok that's what you want maybe it's just a big boat what can it bankruptcy judge do when it comes to what you own well if you take your ranch your little ranch and he can modify the terms of the mortgage he can take your vacation condo in florida modify the terms of the mortgage he can take your yacht or your big boat and modify the terms of what you owe in your yacht what about your home no way the law says the bankruptcy court cannot modify the terms of your mortgage on your home prohibited by law this what and then almost fifteen minutes i asked the two additional minutes  a little graphic illustration of a yacht which i don't know any senator hones one that suddenly but here's the yacht here's a home bankruptcy court can renegotiate the terms for the yacht but not for the home my bill says you have a chance to renegotiate the terms of the home but strict limitations first this does not apply to everybody you have to have an existing mortgage not anything that you could enter into in a future date second has to be a home not a piece of property you bought for speculation third you have to qualify to go into bankruptcy court fourth when you modify the mortgage they can't lower the the principal on the mortgage below the fair market value of the home and many foreclosure proceedings don't end up at fair market value and tell you that if if the interest rate that they can impose on the new mortgage can't be anything less than the prime rate plus a premium for risk six if the home that you have refinanced through the bankruptcy court goes up in value over the next five years the lender the bank gets the increase in value so you're protecting the lender on both ends no lower than fair market value any increase in value goes to the bank so now the mortgage bankers god bless them say this is the end of western civilization as we know it if these people go into court and are able to stay in their home under these circumstances interest rates will go up all over america well that isn't the case at all georgetown law center just recently an analysis and this is their conclusion taken as a whole our analysis of the current storable data suggest that permitting bankruptcy modification of mortgages would have no or little impact on mortgage markets i've talked to these bankers this doesn't make since unregulated unsupervised without oversight they dragged us into this mortgage crisis with millions of people with our homes on the line and our condo me teetering on recession the values of home across america in peril and now they will not even allow us to help these families who end up in bankruptcy court may well but i'd like to have a vote on that has thirty additional seconds without objection i'd like to ask my friends on the republican side of the aisle at two fifteen or two thirty when the time comes let's have a vote on this if you don't want to fight fires don't be a firefighter if you don't want to cast a vote on an issue that's important for america today don't run for the senate but if you want to be in the senate and be part of this nation ill debate then for goodness sakes vote to proceed to this bill let's not litter this graveyard of filibusters with this important housing stimulus bill i urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle give homeowners a chance to get out from underneath the collapsing housing market in the united states it's been well talent it's responsible and i think it's something that we should adopt very quickly in this legislative package two months lost jobs last month sixty three thousand jobs were cut to the payrolls that's a lodger's monthly decline in jobs in five years the national unemployment rate is four point eight but back in my home state of iowa it's five point eight percent and we're seeing an economy that is sliding into recession this in my view to reconcile to try to stop the erosion of economic opportunity in the country is to stabilize the housing market and that is what the package of proposals that we will vote on this afternoon attempts to do we have a situation as country where revenue incomes rather have been flat for the last eight years for most americans unless you are extraordinarily well compensated the highest level but if you're a working man or woman low income middle income even opera middle income your incomes than the flat you've seen accelerating course but the last thing that people had in near tool kit if you will was the value of the home that was what they could draw in emergencies they could use it to help children go to college they could use it if there was some unexpected expense now with declining housing values american families a being squeezed dramatically job losses creasing prices flat incomes and now declining housing values  fact it's been estimated that today in the united states the value of homes fell below fifty percent of equity the ratio of equity to the old value the home fell below fifty percent for the first time in a long long time and we're also looking at a situation where there's a record number of foreclosures just this morning coming in into work listening to the radio montgomery county a huge acceleration of the foreclosures and that suburb in maryland of washington d c and it's happening across the country there used to be in in the provinces cheryl in my home state of rhode island maybe two or three pages of foreclosures on a high number now there's a whole section that's devoted to foreclosures it is becoming a problem not just for individual households but it's a problem for communities because the value of a foreclosed home brings down the value of surrounding homes and it's a cascading effect and it ruins communities as well as impairs that the credit and the lives and the opportunities of individual families to revise the regulation of financial institutions and part of this is prompted by the subprime mortgage crisis the securitization of these loans but there is nothing in his blueprint that actually dealt directly which i think is the most important aspect the problem that is home values of the administration has been very keen and very quick to help wall street the reality is we've got to help main street we've got to help individual homeowners across this country if we do that i think that will provide a surge of confidence to the economy which is a key factor in beginning a recovery from what looks like the beginning of a recession or perhaps a long recession unless we act promptly i've joined my colleagues to introduce this legislation the the foreclosure prevention act of two thousand and eight it builds on the economic stimulus package it's a compliment to the economic stimulus package i hope that we can move today despite previous opposition by colleagues on the republican side to take up this legislation begin the debate modify if necessary move forward deliberately and quickly to address the issue of housing in the united states this legislation if an act that would help families keep their homes by providing counseling for foreclosure by expanding refinancing  opportunities by getting the services and counselors together to attempt to allow people to stay in their homes and one aspect of this is mentioned by my colleague from illinois is the bankruptcy code modification that would allow  these residences to be subject to a bankruptcy judges determination of a different workout plan for the home it also helps communities withstand the impact of foreclosures i mentioned there's a cascading effect one homes foreclosed the value of the other homes around it begins automatically to decline this legislation or via community develop block grants to cities to purchase some of these homes and we have to move quickly because one of the other aspects of this crisis is when these homes in urban areas particularly are empty for even a matter of weeks or or even some cases days they're stripped the siding ripped off the copper piping taken out and unless there is someone to go in there and keep it in use or to board up and protect it then these homes going to be lost not just temporarily but for a longer term as we have to repair the destruction it's going to help businesses  clear disclosure of the maximum amount of the loan the maximum monthly payment ledger station that i authored this will give the bumper sticker the big warning label on a mortgage to individual bars will tell them what the maximum amount of money they're liable for so the introductory teaser rate of two thousand dollars a month might be attractive but if people realize within a year or two years they'll be playing two or three times that it will i hope give them the information they need to make a better judgment about signing up for such a long alone so this legislation is critical to critical families and it's particularly critical i think to ensure that we begin to work our way out under the previous order the senate stands in recess until there are two fifteen p