MS. PERINO: On the housing bill, President Bush -- I'll just remind you that it was August 31st of last year when the housing crisis was emerging that President Bush held an event here and called on Congress and asked them to work with him in a bipartisan fashion to pass legislation that would do several things -- one, modernize the FHA, which is the Federal Housing Administration, and to also establish these reforms that he's been calling for for years for the housing GSEs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Unfortunately, we're now almost to the end of July, so it's been almost 11 months and they haven't acted, even while we've had this housing crisis.
As the housing bill went through the legislative process, one of the things that was added was a $4-billion bailout for lenders in the form of Community Development Block Grants -- CDBG funds -- that the President did not think was an appropriate use of money. He thought it was wasteful and that it would encourage lenders to foreclose on properties rather than have them work with the homeowner to try to help them rework their loan and be able to stay in their house. Over the past several weeks, or I'd say the last few weeks, Secretary Paulson has been increasingly concerned about the stability of the marketplace when it comes to the housing GSEs. I think it was about 10 days ago, on a Sunday evening, he asked Congress to help quickly pass some authorities that the Treasury needed in respect to reform of the GSEs. That provision would be included in the bill that the House is going to pass today. We also, in the past several days, have realized that Congress is not going to get a lot done before it leaves for its next recess, which is August 10th, and they're probably not going to be back until mid-September. Given that the housing legislation is so essential right now, and that we need it promptly, the President agreed to accept Secretary Paulson's recommendation that it was more important to accept the bill in this form so that we could get the housing reforms in the form of the GSEs, and to go ahead and sign the bill, even though it has the CDBG money in it.
seen at 09:00, 23 July
in
Whitehouse Press Briefings.
Email this to a friend.
Next item;
Original source;
Previous item;
