IV 
111TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. RES. 181 
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the States should 
enact a temporary moratorium on residential mortgage foreclosures. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
FEBRUARY 23, 2009 
Ms. KAPTUR submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the 
Committee on Financial Services 
RESOLUTION 
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that 
the States should enact a temporary moratorium on resi-
dential mortgage foreclosures. 
Whereas nearly 3,600,000 jobs have been lost in the United 
States in the past 13 months; 
Whereas in January 2009 the unemployment rate jumped to 
7.6 percent and the National Conference of State Legis-
latures reported that 7 States have already exhausted 
their unemployment insurance trust funds and another 
11 States may experience the same by the end of 2009; 
Whereas the Director of the Congressional Budget Office tes-
tified as follows in a Senate hearing on January 28, 
2009: ‘‘Challenging conditions seem likely to persist for 
some time in the housing and mortgage markets as well. 
Housing sales remain weak, and construction activity 
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•HRES 181 IH 
continues to decline. With the housing market’s large 
glut of vacant properties, the prices of homes are likely 
to fall considerably further, pushing the value of more 
borrowers’ homes below the value of their outstanding 
mortgages. As more of those ‘underwater’ borrowers ex-
perience losses of income during the current recession, 
rates of delinquency and foreclosure on residential mort-
gage loans are likely to rise further.’’; 
Whereas the current economic situation began to unfold some 
time ago and, in fact, the Federal Reserve first began to 
supply additional liquidity to credit markets in August 
2007, as pressures from losses on mortgage-related as-
sets unexpectedly began to mount; 
Whereas many economists today believe that at the crux of 
our Nation’s financial crisis, and a key component to 
overcoming this crisis, is the Nation’s housing markets, 
not ignoring the necessary changes for our Nation’s fi-
nancial markets; 
Whereas the intent of the Troubled Assets Relief Program of 
the Department of the Treasury, established by the 
Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (Public 
Law 110–343; 12 U.S.C. 5211 et seq.), was to, in large 
portion, purchase troubled assets, including securitized 
mortgages, and to enable banks and other lenders en-
gaged in the mortgage market to engage in mortgage 
modifications, loan workouts, and other processes de-
signed to stem off the ever-rising tide of foreclosures, and 
that has not happened to the level necessary to stem the 
tide of foreclosures and it continues; 
Whereas, according to the Center for Responsible Lending, 
there are 6,600 new foreclosures each day, which is ap-
proximately one new foreclosure every 13 seconds; 
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•HRES 181 IH 
Whereas it is projected that there could be as many as 
2,400,000 foreclosures in the United States before the 
end of 2009, along with double-digit unemployment; 
Whereas although the United States is not experiencing a de-
pression, we are in housing situation that is similar in 
nature, where homeowners’ mortgage balances are larger 
than the current value of their homes and where people 
are losing their homes at an accelerating rate; 
Whereas during the Great Depression, the State of Min-
nesota declared an economic emergency, and enacted a 
law granting relief in certain cases, ‘‘for inequitable fore-
closure of mortgages on real estate and execution sales 
and for postponing certain others’’ (Chapter 339, Laws 
of Minnesota, 1933, page 514); 
Whereas the Minnesota statute included provisions that post-
poned foreclosure sales or extended mortgage redemption, 
as well as taking actions relating to the jurisdiction of 
such activities, and the Minnesota statute established a 
hard and fast deadline of when such relief would end, 
making the Act temporary in nature; 
Whereas this law was challenged in the case Home Building 
& Loan Association v. Blaisdell, which was argued before 
the United States Supreme Court in 1933, with the 
Court ruling in 1934 in favor of the Minnesota law; 
Whereas there are clear challenges to implementing a nation-
wide moratorium on mortgage foreclosures, yet this case 
tells us that the States can take action using the police 
power of the State; and 
Whereas in this time of emergency, with unemployment at 
7.6 percent for January 2009, a financial system in dis-
array also affecting world markets, a market that is not 
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yet stabilizing, and our Nation’s citizens struggling to 
find work and maintain housing and nutrition, it is time 
that the Nation, through the action of the President of 
the United States, declare a national foreclosure emer-
gency and State by State, seek to end the foreclosure cri-
sis: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Rep-
resentatives that— 
(1) the President of the United States should 
declare a national residential mortgage foreclosure 
emergency and, through such declaration, encourage 
the States, by use of their police power, to enact a 
moratorium on residential mortgage foreclosures 
similar to the moratorium enacted by the State of 
Minnesota in 1933 and upheld by the Supreme 
Court of the United States in Home Building & 
Loan Association v. Blaisdell (290 U.S. 398 
(1934)); and 
(2) the States should exercise such power and 
enact such a moratorium. 
Æ 
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