Date: 2007-10-04
Speaker: LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Florida

Thank you. Mr. Speaker. I would like to thank my friend. the gentleman from California. for the time and I yield myself such time as I may consume. In August. over 165.000 properties in Florida alone entered - foreclosure. 50 percent more than the previous month. The situation is most acute in the part of Florida that I am honored to represent. MiamiDade County ranks in the top five counties in the Nation among major metropolitan areas where homes are entering some stage of foreclosure. Broward County ranks third in the Nation. This great cause for. concern in the housing market has prompted anxiety over the tax consequences associated with discharges of indebtedness. debt forgiveness. in connection with restructuring acquisition indebtedness and home foreclosures. As the gentleman from California pointed out. under current law. when a lender forgives some or all of the mortgage debt. Mr. Speaker. the borrower is required to treat the forgiven debt as taxable income. taxed at ordinary rates. In todays marketplace. declining property values have left some sellers in the position of having to sell their homes for less than the outstanding balance on the mortgage. Even if the loss of value occurs through no fault of their own. if the lender forgives the shortfall. that amount is taxable income for sellers. This phantom income tax places a heavy burden on a family that has incurred a significant economic loss. This legislation will help protect those homeowners from an unexpected and unfair tax bill. The bill also extends the deduction for private mortgage insurance for 7 years. Current law limits the deduction for private mortgage insurance to payments made prior to the end of 2007. This provision will be helpful. especially to young families purchasing their first home. There is some concern that the bill may go beyond what is needed during this time. The administration and some in the minority here in Congress have stated that the relief should be temporary to assist homeowners during the current mortgage market transition period. avoiding as much as possible distorting consumer and lender decisions on new mortgage loans. But. Mr. Speaker. there can be no doubt that the underlying legislation being brought forth today for consideration by this House is an example of what can happen. the good that can happen. the progress that can be made when the congressional majority decides to work with the administration. with the President and the minority in Congress on an important issue such as this. Much of the legislation that we will be considering today was proposed.. the substance of that legislation was proposed by President Bush. And so this is an example of what progress can be made on important issues when the congressional majority decides to work with the minority and the administration. Now. on process. Mr. Speaker. in a document called The New Direction for America. the new congressional majority laid out its campaign promises to the American people last year. Included in that document was a promise. and I quote. that bills should generallycome to the floor under a procedure that allows open. full and fair debate consisting of a full amendment process that grants the minority the right to offer its alternatives. including a substitute. But with this rule today that. as you know. Mr. Speaker. the rule is what brings- to the floor the underlying substantive legislation that will be considered subsequently by the House. with this rule today. themajority has broken its own promise in two ways. First. they denied the minority the ability to offer a substitute amendment. My colleague. the distinguished ranking member. Mr. DREIER. offered two amendments Tuesday in Rules to allow Ways and Means Ranking Member MCCRERY the ability to offer a substitute amendment on this legislation. But on a partyline vote. the majority rejected the minoritys ability to offer a substitute. The majority claims that they are running the House in a more open manner than we did in the 109th Congress. but this rule today once again demonstrates that they are not moving toward a more open process. but instead moving backwards. This rule closes out all amendments. So every Member of the House is precluded from in any way offering their ideas to improve this bill. So far this year. the -majority has offered 34 closed rules on bills. closing out all amendments. far surpassing the number from the 109th Congress at this point. as a matter of fact. more than double the amount of closed rules. At this point in the 109th Congress there had been 16 closed rules. And remember the promise: the promise was to move in the other direction. and instead. more than double the amount of closed rules. clearly. moving backwards. What this rule today really represents. Mr. Speaker. is a missed opportunity. If the majority had offered an open rule. the majority could have doubled their number of open rules on nonappropriations bills to a whopping two. instead. theyve permitted only one open rule on nonappropriations bills. thus continuously violating their claim to be a more open and bipartisan Congress. Mr. Speaker. at this time I reserve the balance of my time.