Kathy Castor

Ms. CASTOR

Ms. CASTOR. Mr. Speaker, I want to make sure that the record reflects and that it is very clear that on this very important appropriations bill relating to veterans affairs and military construction, every Member out of 435 in this House had the opportunity to submit an amendment if they chose to do so.

Ms. CASTOR

Ms. CASTOR. Madam Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to not only a great athlete but an excellent student and role model for today's youth. Tim Tebow exploits on the field are well documented. In addition to being the first sophomore to win the prestigious Heisman Trophy in 2007, he also received the Davey O'Brien and Maxwell Awards for his athletic achievements. However, his off the field accomplishments warrant praise as well. Tim Tebow is a member of the Southeastern Conference Academic Honor Roll as well being an ESPN the Magazine's Academic All-American first team selection. Tim is just the fourth sophomore to ever receive first team Academic All-American honors at the University of Florida. While majoring in Family, Youth, and Community Services, Tim Tebow has shown his dedication not only to his local community but to the entire world. He is a SEC Community Service Team Honoree as well as a member of the Goodwill Gators. Through the Goodwill Gators, he has worked to improve lives in his community at the Children's Miracle Network at Shands Hospital in Gainesville, Florida. He has spent several summers volunteering overseas building housing and hospitals in the Philippines. As a result of his charitable work and leadership skills, Tim Tebow was awarded with the James E. Sullivan Memorial Award. The Sullivan Award recognizes leadership, character, sportsmanship, and strong moral character. He is only the second University of Florida student to ever achieve this award. Notwithstanding all of his athletic and community service activities, Tim Tebow has maintained a 3.77 grade point average. Madam Speaker, with his achievements in the classroom, his charity in the community, and his dedication to his teammates, I honor Tim Tebow as he is not only a model for today's student-athlete but a role model for children across this Nation.

Ms. CASTOR

Ms. CASTOR. Mr. Speaker, I am privileged to yield 5 minutes to the distinguished chairwoman of the Rules Committee, Ms. Slaughter of New York.

Ms. CASTOR. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time and I move the previous question on the resolution.

Ms. CASTOR. Mr. Speaker, I urge adoption of the American Housing Rescue and Foreclosure Prevention Act and this rule, as families across America are in the grips of a housing crisis and it demands expeditious action. The President of the United States says it's necessary. The Governors in this great Nation say it's necessary, and I will submit their statements into the Record. Foreclosures are way up, and the options for safe, clean, and affordable housing are down. In my home town of Tampa, Florida, one in 280 homes is in foreclosure. Now, as Rules Committee Chairwoman Slaughter said, we're going to clean up this mess because America's hardworking families are depending on us, but we will also need to follow up and hold those accountable who have created this mess. Now, the House of Representatives over the past 1\1/2\ years have passed bills to help homeowners avoid foreclosure, provide resources to local communities to build new, safe and affordable housing, and crack down on predatory lenders. It has all come to fruition here today. Our efforts will keep the American dream of homeownership available to more American families, thanks to the efforts of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Chairman Barney Frank and Chairwoman Maxine Waters, and the other champions for America's families who are going to continue to side with them, and our commitment to affordable housing and safe and healthy communities. Mr. Speaker, I urge a ``yes'' vote on the previous question and the rule. Executive Office of the President, Office of Management and Budget, Washington, DC., July 23, 2008. Statement of Administration Policy H.R. 3221--Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, (Rep. Frank (D)

Ms. CASTOR. Mr. Speaker, I have the right to close, so I will reserve the balance of my time until the gentleman from Texas has made his closing statement.

Ms. CASTOR. I will have to object to that. I will note that the rule does provide for an extended amount of debate on the legislation, itself.

Ms. CASTOR. Mr. Speaker, at this time I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee).

Ms. CASTOR. Mr. Speaker, we reserve the balance of our time.

Ms. CASTOR. I yield the gentleman 30 additional seconds.

Ms. CASTOR. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to correct the record here because this House of Representatives has been working in a bipartisan way for almost 2 years now on housing legislation. In fact, in my opening statement, I chronicled the number of bills starting last year that have been passed in this House by substantial bipartisan margins and sent over to the Senate where they waited. To say that there's been no opportunity for amendment or debate, that's wholly inaccurate. Out of this package, it contains at least five or six bills that had committee hearings, extensive hearings, the opportunity for amendment in committee, the opportunity for debate, previous debate, debate on the floor, amendments here on the floor, debate in the Rules Committee. So I think it's important that the record reflect that reality. And at this time, I'd like to yield 5 minutes to the chairman of the Financial Services Committee, the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Frank).

Ms. CASTOR. Mr. Speaker, I'm very pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Waters), a champion for affordable housing and America's families.

Ms. CASTOR. I yield the gentlewoman an additional 1 minute.

Ms. CASTOR. I yield myself such time as I might consume. Madam Speaker, House Resolution 1363 provides for consideration of the Senate amendment to H.R. 3221, the American Housing Rescue and Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008. The rule makes in order a motion by the chairman of the Committee on Financial Services to concur in the Senate amendment, with the text of the House amendment printed in the Rules Committee report. The rule provides 2 hours of debate on the motion, with 80 minutes controlled by the Committee on Financial Services, and 40 minutes controlled by the Committee on Ways and Means. Madam Speaker, I rise today in strong support of the American Housing Rescue and Foreclosure Prevention Act and this rule. Our landmark legislation today throws a lifeline to families who are struggling to maintain the American dream of home ownership during this housing crisis and the economic downturn. Families across America are being forced to make heart-wrenching decisions in order to stay in their homes. What will they pay for in this day and age, with rising gas prices, property insurance rates escalating, the cost of health care rising? But nothing is more fundamental than having a safe and clean home for your family. The good news is that many of us in the Congress understand, and we are going to stand up for families and ensure that if you work hard and you play by the rules, the tools and resources will be made available to you to help you stay in your home. The American people have a number of champions here in Congress that understand the importance of a safe, clean and affordable home. Chairman Barney Frank has spent countless hours in providing the tools necessary for families across this country to have a safe, affordable place to live. Chairwoman Maxine Waters of California has spent a great part of her career dedicated to affordable housing for American families. Speaker Pelosi and the Chairwoman of the Rules Committee, Louise Slaughter, are champions of American families and affordable housing as well. Madam Speaker, today three million to four million families are expected to lose their homes to foreclosure. And when a home in your neighborhood ends up in foreclosure it affects everyone. It is usually sold at a reduced rate, and the values of homes throughout the neighborhood are affected. We have all seen these eyesores with overgrown grass, broken windows and in disrepair. Well, that is why we are all in this together. It is vital that we fight to maintain the property values of our communities. Madam Speaker, just a few weeks ago I had my first foreclosure workshop to get families together with lenders to try to get to a point where they could work out their loans. We were very surprised. We had over 600 individuals show up who were either in foreclosure, had fallen a month or two behind, or could see on the horizon, because of an adjustable rate loan or some family circumstance like the loss of a job or the kids going off to college, that they needed a little bit of help. Well, we have been very active in this Congress because while this is a problem that, yes, critically affects a State like Florida, in the Tampa Bay area that I have the privilege to represent, and it affects California desperately, Ohio, Nevada, no part of the country has been immune from the sub prime lending crisis. Fortunately, this American Housing Rescue and Foreclosure Prevention Act comes at an important time. But, you know, this Congress has been working on this for over a year and a half. So many of the initiatives contained in this package have been passed by the House of Representatives. This ``New Direction Congress'' has worked, in a bipartisan way, to pass most of the initiatives that are contained in the act today. Families should know that H.R. 3648, the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act, was passed and did become law at the end of last year; passed by a margin of 386-27 here in the House. It provides that over the next 3 years, families who have had to sell their homes in foreclosure will be spared from getting hit by a larger tax bill, in addition to the pain of losing their homes. There are a number of other critical components in the Housing Rescue Package that were previously passed by the House. And I would like everyone to note, because we will probably hear a great deal of debate here today on the housing package. Everyone should note that almost all the initiatives contained in the bill today were passed over the last year and a half by wide, bipartisan margins. First, the Neighborhood Stabilization Act. That was approved in May by a vote of 239-188. It provides grants to the States and local governments to purchase and rehabilitate foreclosed properties and turn them into safe, affordable places for folks to live. And I would like to recognize and thank the White House for removing its veto threat. It had threatened to veto this entire package that had been negotiated with the White House over this small section that provides important tools to our State and local governments to tackle those properties that are up for foreclosure, the ones that are overgrown, that have the broken windows, allows them to go in and purchase those properties and turn them into affordable housing for families who are in need. The package also includes the important provisions of the Federal Housing Finance Reform Act that we passed in May of 2007 by a vote of 313-104. This is vital legislation today because it establishes new and extensive oversight and regulatory authority over the Federal National Mortgage Association, Fannie Mae, and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, Freddie Mac. To protect the taxpayers, we are instituting new requirements for the safety and soundness of the portfolio operations of these regulated entities. We need to make sure that we have oversight on the effects of the financial and housing finance markets of all these alternatives and provide an alternative to the current secondary market system for housing finance. Madam Speaker, last September we also passed an important part of this package, the Expanding Home Ownership Act of 2007, by a margin of 348-72 here in the House. This is a critical piece because it expands access to the middle class to the low interest, low fee loans provided by the Federal Housing Administration. These FHA loans are a much better option to the sub prime loans. We are going to take a proactive step here to allow families facing foreclosure to qualify for the low interest, no fee loans offered by the FHA. The housing package today also includes the National Affordable Housing Trust Fund Act of 2007. That was passed here in the House last October by a vote of 264-148. This creates a new, innovative fund that will be used to build more affordable housing for hard working families and families who have lost their homes due to foreclosure. The new trust fund will focus on construction, rehabilitation and preservation of affordable housing in our hometowns. It will pool monies to target housing for families with the greatest economic need. And our efforts come at a critical time if we can get this trust fund up and running. See, the Federal money for affordable housing has largely disappeared under the current administration over the past 7 years. In many communities like mine, housing agencies have thousands on the waiting list. In my hometown of Tampa, Florida, during a 1-week open enrollment session, more than 10,000 seniors, veterans and families indicated a need for housing. But instead of receiving housing, they are placed on a waiting list, and the waiting list takes up to 4 years, and it is so long that the Tampa Housing Authority is unable to help others that need it. Madam Speaker, another important part of this housing package is the Mortgage Reform and Anti-Predatory Lending Act of 2007. Yes, we passed this here in the House last November by a vote of 291-127. It requires States to license all mortgage professionals and mandate criminal background checks, requires exams and a ban on felons participating in the mortgage loan industry. We all know that the predatory lending was rampant during the sub prime loan run up. And I would like to draw your attention to anyone that would like to examine in depth the details of predatory lenders and how they worked. Go to the MiamiHerald.com Web site and review their series on predatory lending that they have run over the past couple of days. It is outstanding. They reviewed thousands of pages of court documents, State industry reports, internal e-mails, and police reports from 2000 to 2007 and they discovered that over 5,000 people with criminal histories during that time became loan originators, a rate of nearly two a day. Worse, those include over 2,000 who had committed financial crimes such as fraud, money laundering, and grand theft. Too many of our neighbors were outright lied to and steered into unaffordable, exploding adjustable-rate mortgages without being given an option for a fixed rate and are now facing foreclosure which harms their families and all of us in their community. To accompany this extensive package, what has been added that really has not been voted on by the House today is a request by the Treasury Secretary for new standby authority to buy stock or debt in the GSEs if it is determined that an emergency exists. This is something of an insurance policy against broader losses in the housing market that could bubble up. Mr. Speaker, our efforts here today are absolutely necessary. Families across this country are depending on us. It's unfortunate that while the House and the new-direction Congress has been focused on affordable housing over the past year and a half and has passed terrific, substantive legislation, that it's taken a few months to get it enacted and passed in the end. Thanks again to Chairman Barney Frank for headlining our negotiations with the other body and with the White House. And I feel secure that a large bipartisan vote here today will prove that we can stand up and address this housing crisis across this country. I reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. CASTOR. I ask unanimous consent that all Members be given 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks on House Resolution 1363.

Ms. CASTOR. Madam Speaker, I rise today in strong support. For the purpose of debate only, I will yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Sessions). All time yielded during consideration of the rule is for debate only. General Leave

Ms. CASTOR. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee).

Ms. CASTOR. Madam Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 1363 and ask for its immediate consideration.

Ms. CASTOR

Ms. CASTOR. Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.

Ms. CASTOR

Ms. CASTOR. Madam Speaker, today I rise to begin to address an overwhelming problem currently faced by far too many of our most vulnerable neighbors by introducing the Timely Due Process for the Disabled Act. Every year, thousands of Americans lose the ability to work due to illness or injury. But as paychecks stop coming in, bills do not. For many of these people, the only thing that can prevent them from having to share their time between medical treatment and phone calls from collection agencies and attempts to avoid foreclosure is Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI). But, today, the system of enrolling in SSDI is broken. The average wait for an Administrative Law Judge hearing to contest a faulty disability determination has climbed in the past 8 years from an already outrageous 275 days to 481 days, with 28% of claims taking over 600 days to receive a hearing. This figure does not even include the initial determination, and reconsideration phases, which together push the average wait time for an Appeals Hearing case to well over 2 years. One of my constituents called my office in Tampa, frantic that his home was in foreclosure proceedings, and though he knew he was eligible for Disability, he simply had not been given a hearing. Facing the prospect of homelessness with a young daughter, he still was not able to break through the crushing bureaucracy that has taken over the Disability appeals process. One woman I worked with had had multiple surgeries due to debilitating problems with her spine. She was in excruciating pain, and was completely unable to work, but was denied disability payments. The Social Security Administration eventually conceded that she was, in fact, eligible for disability payments. But before that happened, she had to endure three long years of financial uncertainty, near bankruptcy, and the near repossession of her home. Another constituent of mine was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. She started to have balance problems. At one point she lost her balance and was injured in a bad fall. Still, she was denied disability. Her husband had to come out of retirement to take a part-time job in order to avoid financial ruin while they waited, and waited, and waited for their appeals hearing. Finally, the Social Security Administration came back and said that yes, she should have been receiving payments for years. A system that leaves our neighbors in limbo while their financial problems continue to mount is not a system that is working. The Timely Due Process for the Disabled Act will begin to move us in the right direction by setting a standard of treatment for disability patients. It instructs the Social Security Administration to, within 5 days of receiving an appeal, set a date for a hearing. After a 60-day time period for claimants to prepare and gather evidence, the hearing must be held within 15 days. A final determination will be required in another 15 days. These benchmarks are ambitious, but they are not out of line with timeliness requirements in other agencies. The Timely Due Process for the Disabled Act will also allow a more complete picture of the magnitude of the problems inherent in the system. It requires local offices to share more data about the first phase of the appeals process, the reconsideration phase. While SSA already reports data about the initial claims phase, the Administrative Law Judge hearing phase, and the appeals council, which is the last level of appeals, there is far less data available about the reconsideration phase that takes place at the State disability offices. This is the first level of appeal, and in many cases, is a formality where the same office that denied the claim looks at the same material again, eating up an additional average of about 2 months time. This bill will give a clearer idea of how long these reconsiderations are taking, and how we can speed them up. Ultimately, the way we treat people with disabilities reflects the values we have as a nation. Over the past 8 years, that treatment has gone from bad to worse, leaving thousands of Americans who need help to struggle on without it. I urge my colleagues to support the Timely Due Process for the Disabled Act and begin to place a priority on doing right by our neighbors who need us the most.

Ms. CASTOR

Ms. CASTOR. Mr. Speaker, we've been working diligently to improve Medicare for America's seniors. In fact, on June 24, the Democratic-led House of Representatives passed by a large bipartisan margin, 355-59, critical Medicare legislation. Unfortunately, it's being blocked by the White House and Republicans across the Capitol. I urge the White House and Republicans in the other body to stop siding with private health insurance companies and, instead, join us in standing up for families who rely on Medicare. Our Medicare bill is critical to the health of our neighbors. It helps ensure that seniors have access to high quality health care and the doctor of their choice. Health care for our military families and retirees is also linked to our Medicare bill, and the Military Officers Association is calling on the White House and Republicans to end their opposition. Our legislation cuts overpayments and wasteful subsidies to private managed-care insurance companies and redirects these resources to where they belong: the health of our seniors.

Ms. CASTOR

Ms. CASTOR. Madam Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to my good friend, the gentleman from Vermont, a member of the powerful Rules Committee, Mr. Welch.

Ms. CASTOR. Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Maryland, a leader on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Mr. Cummings.

Ms. CASTOR. Madam Speaker, at this time, I'm very happy to yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer).

Ms. CASTOR. Madam Speaker, I would like to point out that, under the underlying bill, we provide extensive assistance to rural America. It is clear that folks in rural America oftentimes bear the brunt of high gas prices brought on by this unfortunate Bush economy and by the failure of leadership over the past 6 to 8 years. The underlying bill provides over $100 million for rural America to expand the alternative use through public transportation. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.