U.S. House Passes Anti-Foreclosure Bill Facing Bush Veto Threat

The U.S. House of Representatives
passed statute law to allow a federal federal agency see up to $300
billion in mortgages to assist householders debar foreclosure, a day
after the White Person House threatened to blackball the measure.

The House voted 266-154 yesterday to O.K. the housing
package offered by Bay State Democrat . The plan
would let the to insure
refinanced mortgages after loan holders hold to cut principal
to do payments affordable.

''We're in a recession and a major cause of that recession
is the subprime crisis,'' Frank, president of the , said on the House flooring before the vote. ''We make not see any options to this bill.''

Democrats in United States Congress are at likelihood with Republican lawmakers
and the Shrub disposal over attempts to stem foreclosures
amid the worst lodging slack in a one-fourth century. The White
House prefers a voluntary, industry-led programme to modify loan
terms and this hebdomad issued a veto menace against Frank's bill.

Republicans oppose using authorities funds, saying that
would honor loaners and investors who acted recklessly and is
unfair to householders who are keeping up with mortgage payments. Democrats including Frank state authorities support is needed to
preserve vicinities and assist householders who were steered into
loans they couldn't afford.

A huge bulk of Americans ''are now going to assume
responsibility for ill-advised fiscal determinations and
misjudgments of other people,'' said Representative of Alabama, the top Republican on the House Financial
Services Committee, on the House flooring before yesterday's vote.

Bernanke Support

Frank's Federal Housing Administration proposal would be $2.7 billion and assist about
500,000 homeowners, according to a Congressional Budget Office
estimate. Federal Soldier Modesty President indicated
support for the program during a May 5 address without explicitly
endorsing it.

The Democrats' lodging bundle also would spread out the FHA's
role in insuring mortgages and beef up inadvertence of Fannie
Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-chartered companies that are
the greatest beginnings of money for U.S. mortgages. It includes a
provision that would screen loan-servicing companies that modify
mortgages from investor lawsuits.

Frank said the measure makes ''to some extent'' stand for a
bailout for borrowers who made errors and got in over their
heads.

''Some people do bad occupation picks -- we give them
unemployment compensation,'' Frank said yesterday in a Bloomberg
Television interview after the vote. ''We are in an
interconnected economy.''

The statute law didn't acquire the two-thirds bulk vote
necessary to overrule a presidential veto, he said.

Dodd Legislation

Frank's opposite number in the Senate, Banking Committee
Chairman , said he is working with co-workers on
the panel to go through similar legislation.

''The transition of this bipartizan measurement directs a clear
signal to Americans -- and the White Person House -- that United States Congress is
committed to helping people maintain their places and stabilise the
markets,'' Dodd, a Nutmeg State Democrat, said yesterday in a
statement.

The House yesterday also approved a measure that would create
a $15 billion loan-and-grant programme to assist states purchase and
rehabilitate foreclosed homes. Democrats said the measurement is
necessary to maintain vicinity places from falling in value and
to forestall the blight and law-breaking that vacant places attract.

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Bush Attacks Democrats Over Surveillance Legislation (Update5)

President stepped up
his onslaught on House Democrats who support terrorism surveillance
legislation that would deny unsusceptibility from lawsuits to telephone
companies. The Democratic program presents a menace to the safety of
the U.S., the president said.

The Shrub disposal and House Democrats are deadlocked
over whether to immunize the companies from privateness lawsuits for
cooperating in the government's eavesdropping on suspected
terrorists without tribunal warrants.

The House bes after to see statute law tomorrow that lacks
the unsusceptibility shield. Democratic leadership agreed to a Republican
request to throw a secret session late today to discourse the
measure. Meeting in private volition license ''a blunt discussion
about the pressing demand to give our intelligence functionaries all the
tools they need,'' Republican leader of Buckeye State said
in a statement.

The Democratic House measure ''would sabotage America's
security,'' Shrub said in a statement he read today on the White
House lawn. ''Voting for this measure would do our state less
safe. The House measure may be good for class-action experimental lawyers,
but it would be awful for the U.S.''

The secret session would be the first since 1983 and the
third since 1825. The 1983 session was to let treatment about
aid to the Nicaraguan Rebels fighting that country's leftist
Sandinista government.

Congress is considering a projected alteration of the 30-year-
old Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that sets procedures
for court-approved electronic eavesdropping. A temporary
surveillance law enacted last twelvemonth expired on Feb. 16, and the
administration reasons the oversight is putting the state at risk.

Protecting Telephone Companies

Bush states shielding the telephone companies from lawsuits would
ensure their continued aid in monitoring domestic and overseas
conversations of suspected terrorists. He again threatened today
to blackball any statute law that misses such as protection for the
companies.

''This measure is unwise,'' Shrub said. ''The House leaders
know that the Senate will not go through it. And even if the Senate
did base on balls it, they cognize I will blackball it.''

Senator , a Bay State Democrat, said
Bush is trying ''to tough the United States Congress and mislead the American
people.'' Helium said Bush's insisting on shielding the phone
companies for taking portion in ''his administration's illegal
activity'' is blocking advancement on the legislation.

The Senate, in a bipartizan 68-29 ballot last month, approved
an eavesdropping measurement that parallel bars harm claims against , and other telephone companies that
allegedly helped behavior surveillance after the Sept. 11
attacks. The companies confront some 40 lawsuits seeking millions of
dollars in amends for alleged privateness violations.

The House, vote 227-189 last November along mostly
partisan lines, refused to supply the legal protection for the
companies.

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