Senate panel debates aid for home borrowers

0 Comments | Philadelphia Inquirer, The, April, 2008 | by Harold Brubaker Inquirer Staff Writer

With foreclosure filings engulfing more than 7,000 homes a day nationally, the U.S. Senate Banking Committee came to Philadelphia yesterday in search of information to help stem the tide. The hearing at the Federal Courthouse in Center City was co-hosted by Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D., Conn.), the committee chairman, who has proposed legislation that would use the Federal Housing Administration to rescue troubled borrowers.

Dodd's voluntary program depends on current lenders' willingness to take less than they are owed in a refinancing and the willingness of new lenders to take advantage of an FHA guarantee. Dodd acknowledged the potential ineffectiveness of voluntary programs, but, he said: "If I tried to make it mandatory, I'd probably get 10 votes" in the 100-member...