As the economic situation that our country is currently in continues to decline, there does appear to be a significant effort by most elected officials to work together in order to solve the crisis facing a large portion of the American people. That can be seen in the fact that the Senate voted today to begin debate on the “Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008″ (S. 2636) which will help more families remain in their houses. Many of the bills supporters point to the fact that in addition to providing some assistance to people currently in financial trouble, the legislation “also seeks to avoid foreclosures in the future by making the loan and refinancing process more transparent and consumer friendly.”
I think Virginians should be proud of the fact that Senator Jim Webb is one of the bill’s co-sponsors. He had the following to say about this bill in a statement released earlier today about the legislation.
“This is a responsible piece of legislation designed to help stem foreclosures and give federal resources directly to local governments to aid communities in recovering from this economic downturn,” said Senator Webb. “I am very pleased to see strong, bipartisan cooperation as we work to find a solution to reverse this trend.”
“Just last week, the federal government intervened in the market to bailout the financially-troubled Bear Stearns,” said Webb. “Instead of the administration’s fixation on Wall Street alone, we need an equal focus on the livelihood of families and communities on Main Street.”
In Virginia, the foreclosure rate in the mortgage market has more than doubled since the first quarter of 2006. With increased foreclosures, communities are seeing a decrease in home prices. The increased costs to Virginia have been estimated at $2.21 billion over the next year and a half.
“It has become increasingly obvious that this isn’t a problem that we can leave to the whim of the market alone,” said Webb. “As we develop policy responses to the financial crisis, it is essential that we protect our working people by giving them more bargaining power and ensuring fairness in our tax system.”
I’m glad to see that Webb’s statement tried to focus on how the current situation is affecting Virginia residents. Far too often I think we simply hear about raw statistics on a national basis and seeing the numbers for Virginia might help some people see how the situation applies to our great Commonwealth. At the same time, I think it’s relatively safe to say that the passage of this legislation won’t solve all of our problems. That will require some time and a significant amount of bipartisan effort from our lawmakers.
Filed under: Virginia Politics
