Preemption Amendment to Foreclosure Bill
May 6th, 2008 by Kenneth Long
Rep. Brad Miller (D-NC) and Steven LaTourette (R-OH) are presenting an amendment to the House foreclosure bill that would deny preemption of state law. The Miller-LaTourette Amendment to the FHA bill would honor recent state laws that might be more favorable to the consumer than the federal bill.
HR 5830 is designed to stem the record foreclosures that have hit major housing markets across the nation. However, it does not go as far as some state laws that were enacted in response to the foreclosure crisis.
On Wednesday May 7, the amendment will be presented to the House for inclusion in the foreclosure bill. It is expected that lobbyists representing mortgage lenders will pressure members of the House to defeat the amendment on the floor.
The amendment would deny lenders the ability to avoid tough state laws by operating from another state with less stringent requirements. A similar preemption is what allows some credit card issuers to provide predatory loan products, such as fee harvester cards by basing operations out of South Dakota.
You may view the Miller-Latourette Amendment or call (202) 224-3121 and ask for your representative’s office to voice your opinion.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 6th, 2008 at 5:40 pm and is filed under Foreclosure. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
May 19th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
UPDATE: The Miller-Latourette Amendment was passed in the House by a vote of 256-160. The American Housing Rescue and Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008 (H.R. 3221) was passed by a vote of 266-154.
While the passage has been approved, the bill may still be vetoed due to concerns that it may go to far to bail out irresponsible lenders and speculators. Still yet, a Senate version of the bill has yet to be approved.