Bankruptcy

Mortgage Modification Vote in Senate

By Bob Lawless

Credit Slips has featured a lot of articles about a legislative proposal to give bankruptcy judges the power to modify home mortgages in chapter 13 (here, here, here, here, and here for a just a few examples). Heck, we were blogging about back this idea back in 2007. In March, the House passed H.R. 1106, the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act of 2009, which would enact this proposal into law. Since then, it has faced an uncertain future in the Senate. Yesterday, CongressDaily reported that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will bring the mortgage modification proposal for a floor vote in the Senate. Although this might seem like good news for supporters of the legislation, close observers of the political scene seem to be predicting defeat. Two Democratic Senators (Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Jon Tester of Montana) and Republican Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee are quoted in the CongressDaily article as being against the legislation, with Corker going so far as to say "Cram-down is dead."

If you support the legislation, however, now would be a good time to tell that to your senators -- or, in the case of Minnesota, senator. It's not over until the fat lady lets the horses out of the barn.

Full post as published by Credit Slips on April 24, 2009 (boomark / email).