Frank Statement on Senate FHA Bill Passage

Washington, DC - Rep. Barney Frank, chairman of the House Committee on Financial Services, today released the following statement on the passage of the Senate’s FHA bill:

“I welcome the Senate’s passage of their FHA legislation.  We are in agreement that this is an important action in dealing with our subprime challenges, and that we should act quickly so that the FHA can be a resource for people who can refinance their loans.  I look forward to working with the Senate to preserve important elements of the House bill, for example, ensuring that lower income people do not pay higher premiums than other borrowers, especially for refinance loans for subprime borrowers; sufficiently increasing FHA loan limits to make more Americans eligible for FHA loans; and preventing HUD from imposing unnecessary fee hikes.  Since part of the response to the subprime crisis is an adequate supply of affordable rental housing for families that lose their home or can’t afford to buy a home, it is critical that the bill we send to the President retain provisions in our legislation authorizing the reinvestment of revenues for affordable housing purposes.

“I congratulate Senator Dodd on getting this important legislation passed, and I look forward to working out the differences in the two bills in negotiations with the Senate.”