The Obama administration’s flagship foreclosure aid program, HAMP (Home Affordable Modification Program), and HUD’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) are both in congressional sites as the House Financial Services committee approved both the HAMP Termination Act (HR 839) and the NSP Termination Act (HR 861) yesterday[1]. The committee believes that ending these programs could save around $30 billion dollars of taxpayer money. Chairman of the committee, Spencer Bacchus (R-AL), hopes that the $30 billion can be used instead in the private sector to create jobs.
Not surprisingly, not everyone on Capitol Hill is pleased with the acts. Maxine Waters (D-CA), who has vocally blasted just about everyone on both sides of the aisle this month, announced that she is “very disappointed in my colleagues on the opposite side of the aisle [and] their mania to achieve fiscal austerity at all costs”[2]. Waters was instrumental in getting the Emergency Homeowners Relief Program – also on the chopping block – included in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010.
Of course, all of these negotiations could very well come to nothing, as yesterday the White House repeated that it will veto congressional government funding measures if the “undermine critical priorities or national security through funding levels or restrictions”[3]. The president has said repeatedly over the past few weeks that the termination of HAMP undermines his priorities and long-term economic growth.
Do you think HAMP, NSP and the like should go or stay?
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[1] http://www.dsnews.com/articles/house-committee-advances-bills-to-end-two-more-foreclosure-aid-programs-2011-03-09
[2] http://www.loansafe.org/congresswoman-waters-blasts-republicans-for-voting-to-dismantle-programs-that-help-homeowners-avoid-foreclosure
[3] http://voices.washingtonpost.com/2chambers/2011/03/obama_repeats_veto_threat_agai.html
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