Washington, DC - House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-MA) today made the following statement on the announcement of the Administration’s new efforts to combat foreclosures:

“I welcome the most recent steps by the Administration to help deal with the foreclosure crisis.  It must be emphasized that this is important not just for those who are themselves facing foreclosure, but for the broader economy because this wave of foreclosures has had a general negative effect.  I was particularly pleased that the administration has adopted the proposal that many of us have been advocating to provide help to the unemployed.  While clearly there are some people in trouble on their mortgages who bear some of the responsibility for their plight, this is not true of the unemployed who are fully deserving of this help.

“The Financial Services Committee will continue its efforts in this area, particularly with regard to the importance of having the large banks which hold second mortgages or other types of second liens to take appropriate action.  We will be urging the banks to show full cooperation with this plan at a hearing on April 13 with executives from Bank of America, JPMorganChase, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo and we hope they will be able to explain how they are working with it.”

###

The House recently passed foreclosure avoidance measures as part of H.R. 4173, the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.