Dreier Votes to Help Families Stay in Their Homes, Ensure Access to Credit

May 19, 2009

WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman David Dreier (R-San Dimas, CA) voted this week to protect consumer deposits at banks and credit unions, ensure the availability of credit to families and small businesses, help homeowners avoid foreclosure, and crack down on mortgage fraud and abuse. Today, Dreier supported S. 896, the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act, which the House approved by a vote of 367 - 54 with one member voting present. On May 18, Dreier voted in favor of S. 386, the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act, which the House passed by a vote of 338 - 52.

“Clearly our communities face challenges from the downturn in the housing market and the economy,” Dreier said. “That is why we must help families stay in their homes while ensuring that banks and credit unions have the ability to make loans to consumers and small businesses. It is also imperative that we protect consumer deposits at banks and credit unions by extending the higher federal deposit insurance limit.”

S. 896 includes reforms to the Hope for Homeowners Program to make it more effective for lenders and borrowers and enhances the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the National Credit Union Administration’s (NCUA) ability to address troubled financial institutions, helping to ensure that families and small businesses have access to credit from banks and credit unions. The measure also extends for four years the $250,000 federal deposit insurance limit for bank and credit union deposits.

Dreier continued, “We also need to go after those predatory lenders who took advantage of consumers. Ensuring that federal authorities have the resources and tools to root out mortgage fraud is essential to restoring confidence in the lending and housing markets.”

S. 386 authorizes the FBI to hire 190 additional special agents and more than 200 professional staff and forensic analysts to nearly double the size of its mortgage and financial fraud program. The bill also provides resources for the Department of Justice, the Postal Service, the Secret Service, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Housing and Urban Development to root out fraud in federal assistance programs and financial institutions. In addition, S. 386 expands federal authority to prosecute mortgage fraud and protect the use of taxpayer funds used by the Troubled Asset Relief Program.