Mortgage Bill Faces Tough Road in Congress

A sharply divided Congress isn’t likely to jump at President Barack Obama’s challenge for quick passage of a mortgage refinancing bill that supporters say could help millions of homeowners save big each year and boost the economy.

Obama praised the legislation in his State of the Union speech last week, saying the proposal would help more homeowners with mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac take advantage of low-interest rates and refinance their loans.

Even with mortgage rates near a 50-year low, Obama said, too many families that have never missed a payment and want to refinance are being turned down.

“That’s holding our entire economy back, and we need to fix it,” the president said. “Right now, there’s a bill in this Congress that would give every responsible homeowner in America the chance to save $3,000 a year by refinancing at today’s rates. Democrats and Republicans have supported it before.”

The economy’s slow recovery from the recession gives the idea urgency, Obama said. “Send me that bill,” he told members of Congress listening to his speech in the House chamber.

While the bill could gain traction in the Democratic-controlled Senate, it faces a rough road in the GOP-run House, where many Republicans favor scaling back the government’s role in the housing market as a way of aiding the economy. Similar versions of the measure died in the House and Senate’s lame-duck sessions last year.

“At the moment, it’s an uphill battle,” said Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.), who plans to file the House version of the bill.

Welch said he will reach out to Republicans this year in the hope of building more support, but the bill’s association with government-controlled Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the federal housing agencies partly blamed for the collapse of the housing market, hurts its support base among GOP lawmakers.

“The American taxpayers have already sunk $190 billion into the operations of Fannie and Freddie,” said Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-Texas), a member of the House Financial Services Committee. “It’s time that we wind their operations down instead of using them as a piggy bank for failed programs that further delay the housing recovery. “

Nearly 12 million homeowners have Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans and stand to benefit from refinancing, the two senators said. Many can’t refinance at a lower rate because of red tape and high fees. The red tape has reduced competition among banks, so borrowers pay higher interest rates than they would if they were able to shop around more, according to the senators.

The bill also would reduce up-front fees that borrowers pay on refinances and eliminate appraisal costs for all borrowers.

This article appeared in print on page 2 of the February 18th, 2013 edition of Hamodia.