Issa: House Should Investigate HAMP Failure To Stem Foreclosures

WASHINGTON -- The top two members of the House panel that will be the most closely watched in the 112th Congress continued to spar over the ongoing foreclosure crisis on Friday.

The top-ranking Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Elijah Cummings of Maryland, told The Huffington Post on Wednesday that he had approached new Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) to request a hearing on the crisis, but that Issa wanted to merely focus on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, ignoring the role of the banks.

But Issa has bigger plans: He also wants to focus on the Obama administration's failure to curb the wave of foreclosures, he said in a response to Cummings that was provided to HuffPost on Friday.

"The failure of the Administration's Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) to even come close to meeting its stated goal of helping 'as many as three to four million financially struggling homeowners avoid foreclosure by modifying loans to a level that is affordable for borrowers now and sustainable over the long term,' is deeply troubling," Issa said in the statement.

HAMP has, indeed, been largely a failure, partly because the administration opposed congressional efforts to pass "cramdown" -- which would allow homeowners to renegotiate mortgages in bankruptcy and give banks greater incentive to negotiate modifications.

The back-and-forth over the foreclosure crisis follows a fight Issa and Cummings had over Issa's request that corporations tell the committee what regulations they'd like to see repealed in order for them to begin hiring. Cummings said that the companies would merely "dust off" their longstanding list of deregulatory demands and expressed concerns about Issa's request. Issa responded that Cummings should express the same concern about President Barack Obama hiring a business-friendly chief of staff.

Cummings won election to the oversight committee's ranking-member position promising to aggressively challenge Issa if his investigations turned partisan.

Comments

[Derek Elliot]

07:48 AM on 01/25/2011

Cummings, like most Democrats, has no idea of even the simplest concepts of the market economy. He probably believes that "cost-benefit analysis" is a test his proctologist gives him each year.

[Rita F Real]

05:47 PM on 01/09/2011

Wachovia has been giving me the run around for twelve months through 5 HAMP applications with lost paper, passed deadlines, rejections for income which we don't have, on and on and on. We have provided everything Wachovia has asked for time and again and it is just one big circus where after a time one can see that Wachovia has no interest in modifying my mortgae despite the fact that I am now back to work, we have considerabl eequity in our home and are simply looking to work out a way where missed payments can be tacked on to the backend. Total interstate banking fraud. The politicians should take Wachovia to court and get triple RICO damages.

[Melinda Gopher]

01:06 AM on 01/09/2011

If you put a psycho hairdo on Darrell Issa, he becomes Anton Chigurh.

[jrleftfoot]

12:12 PM on 01/09/2011

You`ve given me a mental picture I won`t soon forget.

[minusthefactor]

03:19 PM on 01/08/2011

We must listen to Darrell Issa and what he is suggesting in regards to the subpoenas he wants to issue and inquiries he wants to hold to investigate the “CORRUPTION” as he put it, of the current administration and this President. His convictions appear to be so strong that he has even convinced a hardcore democrat like me that that there really is something to the allegations he is making.

But just to be on the safe side and make sure that we cross all or t’s dot all our i’s, it is imperative that we give Mr. Issa a thorough and in-depth endoscopic exam so that we can see what is really on his mind.

[Boomer946]

11:54 AM on 01/08/2011

I am a strong supporter of President Obama, but if half the stories about HAMP failures I have read over the past 18 months are true, then I think the whole program needs some serious looking into. It is ridiculous how the mortgage holders have made consumers jump through hoops time and again only to be told after several months they don't qualify for the HAMP modification and must pay all outstanding past due amounts immediately or be foreclosed. The HAMP program, as operated by the banks, is a gotcha program, if ever there was one. They tell people who were current to stop making payments so they could qualify to apply for HAMP. Then the 'submit paperwork, oh we lost it, submit again, phase' would kick in. Then the 'don't call us, we'll call you phase' would start. Lastly, after five or six months, the bank would tell the consumer "Sorry, you don't qualify for HAMP. Pay us all past due amounts, plus late fees or we are foreclosing." I worked in banking and finance for almost forty years. I never heard of lost paperwork during that entire period. This was an obvious sham perpetrated by the banks and allowed to happen by the government. We did cramdowns (agreement where bank negotiated a reduced amount owed with consumer to keep from losing the entire loan) all the time and without government mandates. I don't understand why Obama's guys were against cramdowns.

[wizzardly]

11:05 AM on 01/08/2011

What program has worked with the Obama administration? His policies are not thought through. Remember shovel ready stimulus?

[Matt12]

09:42 AM on 01/08/2011

Isn't time for the LA Times, NY Times WP and other news oulets to do some quick, but detailed investigative piece on Darrell Issa's past, finances and all the rest? Why waste time? Darrell Issa's "probe initiatives" should be DOA - NOW!!!

[Gaylord P Farqua]

08:53 AM on 01/08/2011

Darrell can hardly wait to suit up as the new Joe McCarthy and get to issuing some subpoenas. His investigative work will tie up a lot of government officials and take some of the spotlight off the GOP/Tea Party's non-plan for economic recovery. They have their tax cuts for the rich so now it is time to cruise along with flag waving rhetoric and "getting to the bottom" of the pit they themselves dug. Don't expect any revelations.

[dwmulenex]

07:19 AM on 01/08/2011

so darrell issa will learn what we know: that when push came to shove and Obama had to choose, he chose the interests of the banks that caused the crisis over the homebuyers who nay have erred individually but were not institutions committed to fraud and mismanagement in the name of profits.Not every homebuyer could or should have been saved from foreclosure, but no bank should have been saved from the consequences of fraud and greed. But where are we? Homeowners have taken trillions of dollars in home equity haircuts, while the banks grow longer luxury locks and rake in the cash. And then? The bankers dare more: housing collapsed not from greed, but because of poor people, and the rules of Fannie and Freddie, themselves lateshoppers to GreedMart, where everybody wanted CDOs. And? If houses are just too expensive in a country of falling middle class wages and high joblessness, they need to get cheaper, i.e., another equity haircut and more foreclosures, and no penalty to the banks and Wall Street. Why should Issa waste our money on what Obama and his brainless tin man Treasuryt Secretary have done? We already know we're not in Kansas anymore.

[BeVeryAfraid]

11:59 AM on 01/08/2011

Listening to Robert Reich talking about education being the key to our future.  I hope it starts with critical thinking.  You could really use some help in that area.

[Mafdet]

01:19 AM on 01/08/2011

The Obama Administration did sabotage its own foreclosure program.  Tim Geithner did.  Someone should investigate it. 

[AgingLady]

12:22 AM on 01/08/2011

Issa is a noisy man. He has contributed a lot to the problems of jobs in our country. He has staffed up with accountants and lawyers for all his investigations. Adding to the budget of course.

[ThankGodhesgone]

12:15 AM on 01/08/2011

You perhaps shouldn't go there. You may find that your contributors, the banks and mortgage loaners have a lot to do with it.

[bluntobject]

11:36 PM on 01/07/2011

Issa may have a face only a mother could love, but it is definitely a face many others would like to slap.

[Cleverboots]

11:06 PM on 01/07/2011

Why is it that, even on issues as serious as foreclosure, our elected representatives ultimately cannot rise above petty contentiousness?

[Alfredo Zapata]

10:11 PM on 01/07/2011

“What a complete waste of time these guys are. Hey Issa,tel­l us about your plans for creating jobs in this country. Remember your party said that this last election was about Jobs, Jobs, Jobs? What are you working on that will create jobs in this country? This is just a shameless attempt to divert everyones attention so you repugs can run out the clock until 2012. The party of no. No jobs, no plan, morally bankrupt and numb from the neck up!”