With Millions of Americans Facing Foreclosure, 45 Senators Put Banks before Their Constituents

As the mortgage crisis reaches a fever pitch and more people face bankruptcy every day, 45 senators used a procedural maneuver late yesterday to block the “Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008” from debate. The bill seeks to help homeowners caught in the housing meltdown.

“These 45 senators are playing politics with people’s homes,” said Leadership Conference on Civil Rights President Wade Henderson.  “They are employing procedural tricks to avoid going on record against legislative fixes that could save hundreds of thousands of their constituents’ homes from foreclosure.” 

The principal fix in the Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008 would allow bankruptcy court judges to modify loans taken out by homeowners whose payments are now exploding. The lending industry, the leading opponent of the measure, argues that it can manage the crisis alone.

“We simply can’t afford to let the industry that created this epidemic – and is now being consumed by it – to dictate the terms of the clean up,” said Henderson. “And we can’t let our senators forget that they work for their constituents, not the lending industry.”

The following senators blocked debate on the “Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008,” a bill to save hundreds of thousands of American homeowners from foreclosure:

Allard (CO)
Barrasso (WY)
Bennett (UT)
Bond (MO)
Brownback (KS)
Bunning (KY)
Burr (NC)
Chambliss (GA)
Cochran (MS)
Coleman (MN)
Collins (ME)
Corker (TN)
Cornyn (TX)
Craig (ID)
Crapo (ID)
DeMint (SC)
Dole (NC)
Domenici (NM)
Ensign (NV)
Enzi (WY)
Graham (SC)
Grassley (IA)
Gregg (NH)
Hagel (NE)
Hatch (UT)
Inhofe (OK)
Isakson (GA)
Kyl (AZ)
Lugar (IN)
Martinez (FL)
McConnell (KY)
Murkowski (AK)
Roberts (KS)
Sessions (AL)
Shelby (AL)
Snowe (ME)
Specter (PA)
Stevens (AK)
Sununu (NH)
Thune (SD)
Vitter (LA)
Voinovich (OH)
Warner (VA)
Wicker (MS)