Statement of Senator Barack Obama on the President Signing the Housing Bill into Law
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Printable FormatFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Michael Ortiz, 202 228 5566
WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Barack Obama today released the following statement after President Bush signed the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (H.R. 3221) into law:
"I applaud the enactment of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, which will finally begin the process of providing relief to homeowners and communities and helping to stabilize the housing market. American communities continue to be battered by rising foreclosures and falling home values, and families everywhere are struggling to cope with job losses, cuts in city and state services, and higher prices for essentials like food and gas. This bipartisan bill will help prevent hundreds of thousands of home foreclosures, provide critical financial support to communities that have been hard hit by the housing crisis, and create a badly-needed affordable housing trust fund.
"The bill will also ensure that American families can continue to get affordable mortgages on their homes by establishing an effective regulator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and giving the Treasury Department temporary emergency authority to provide financing if necessary to shore up these important institutions. It is essential that Congress closely monitor these arrangements to make sure that the regulator has teeth and that Treasury's authority not end up being used in a way that simply bails out shareholders or management at taxpayers' expense.
"We still have a long way to go in repairing our economy. The economy has lost almost half a million jobs since the beginning of this year and nearly a million families have faced foreclosure just since this bill was announced. Washington should immediately get to work on a second stimulus package to bring relief to struggling families and help jumpstart a long-awaited economic recovery."