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[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 2 (Wednesday, January 7, 2009)]
[House]
[Pages H53-H54]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

                     NEW CONGRESS, REAL COMMITMENT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Madam Speaker, the wonderful opportunity of a new 
Congress is that it is not bound by the mistakes of the past.
  As foreclosure rates rise in Ohio and across our Nation, it's pretty 
obvious that the Federal responses are not working on Main Street, 
whether it's the $700 billion Wall Street bailout or the $300 billion 
FHA loan workout program.

[[Page H54]]

  Citigroup, for example, was one of the big culprits that caused the 
financial meltdown; yet, they got paid $25 billion from the public 
Treasury. But Ohio, where foreclosures are raging, got nothing. 
Instead, out-of-State megabanks are buying up Ohio banks, while more 
Ohio homeowners get booted out of their homes.
  Last year, in my home County of Lucas, another 4,100 homes were 
foreclosed. That's a minimum of 10,000, 10,000 more people who were not 
helped by Treasury's failed TARP program. Ohio's families alone need 
$20 billion to stop the real estate hemorrhage which is less than what 
Citibank received, and would go to real people, not ersatz and paper 
trades on Wall Street.
  In Toledo, Ohio, you can now buy a home for $4,500, but last fall, 
rather than local homeowners being refinanced in this Wall Street 
bailout bill, one California investor figured it out. He bought 137 
foreclosed properties in Toledo at auction, an auction sponsored by the 
very Wall Street banks that caused the trouble in the first place. 
Houses are being auctioned at prices so low we could have put the 
original occupants back in. Even cities would be able to bid on these 
homes on behalf of their local homeowners, their property owners, but 
they've not yet received any funds from the $4 billion neighborhood 
stabilization program that we were told was supposed to keep local 
neighborhoods whole.
  But the Wall Street banks are cleaning up. They get the bailout 
money. They don't have to manage those properties. They auction them to 
outsiders and then they're just waiting for their taxes to be filed for 
2008 at the IRS to get all those losses booked and get more back from 
the people of the United States.
  Something is very wrong and uncoordinated with the manner in which 
the Federal Government is allowing equity to be bled from local 
homeowners and from our communities at large and awarded to Wall Street 
whole.
  Wall Street banks that hold or sell mortgages on these foreclosed 
properties are not managing their property holdings. These holdings are 
then frequently stripped of copper, electrical wiring and other 
materials, further devaluing adjacent properties and decimating entire 
neighborhoods.
  The $300 billion FHA program designed to help modify troubled 
mortgage loans is as ineffective as the Wall Street bailout. The 
program has received fewer than 200 applications nationwide since 
taking effect October 1 and not a single loan has been modified.
  A bank's receipt of TARP funds should be conditioned on them lending 
money and engaging in mortgage workouts to ensure the program at least 
starts to work somewhat. Many banks and servicers are still reluctant 
to structure manageable workouts with their customers. Among them are 
JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Wilshire, who have received $65 
billion among them in Treasury funds.
  What's fair about that? May the 111th Congress pass more than just 
hollow legislation. Let's pass a measure worthy of the oath we took 
yesterday to protect our Republic from all enemies, foreign and 
domestic.
  Jesse James robbed banks because he said that's where the money is. 
Well, Wall Street just robbed the biggest bank of them all, the public 
Treasury. It's time for Congress to blink and do what's right in the 
111th Congress of the United States.

                          ____________________
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