Congressman Childers Supports Lending Crackdown

WASHINGTON, Tenn. - Congressman Travis Childers (D-MS) joined a majority of his colleagues today in voting for the Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act of 2009 (H.R 1728) to help curb abusive and predatory lending, a major factor in the current financial and economic meltdown. The bill, which won overwhelming bipartisan approval in the House by a vote of 300 to 114, outlaws many of the egregious industry practices that marked the subprime lending boom, and prevents borrowers from deliberately misstating their income to qualify for a loan.

Many North Mississippians are struggling to pay their mortgage loans or have lost their homes through foreclosure. Today's important legislation will hold lenders accountable and crackdown on the predatory and irresponsible practices that have led to the nations highest foreclosure rate in 25 years, said Congressman Childers. I am proud to support the Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act to help us move away from risky practices and back toward commonsense, fixed rate loans.

The legislation was approved in the Financial Services Committee, on which Congressman Childers serves, by a vote of 49 to 21. A similar measure (H.R. 3915) passed the House in 2007 by a vote of 291-127.

To restore the integrity of mortgage lending industry, this bipartisan bill will make sure that the mortgage industry follows basic principles of sound lending, responsibility, and consumer protection, ensuring that:

Borrowers can repay the loans they are sold;

Mortgage lenders make loans that benefit the consumer and prohibit them from steering borrowers into higher cost loans;

All mortgage refinancing provides a net tangible benefit to the consumer;

The secondary mortgage market, for the first time ever, is responsible for complying with these common sense standards when they buy loans and turn them into securities;

There are incentives for the mortgage market to move back toward making safe, fully documented loans; and

Tenants renting homes that are foreclosed would receive notification and time to relocate.