Rep. Andrews Mortgage Legislation Serves as Basis for Recent Bipartisan Law to Help Homeowners: 

I am pleased to announce that the President is going to sign a bi-partisan piece of legislation that includes a bill that I cosponsored along with Rep Ron Lewis (R-Kentucky) that will ensure that homeowners who are forced to sell their homes for less than the amount remaining on their mortgage, will not be further penalized by being taxed on the difference should the lender choose to forgive that amount. It is simply unfair and wrong to tax people on “phantom” income, especially when they have just suffered such a serious economic loss. 

I want to commend Chairman Charles Rangel (D-NY) for including the Mortgage Cancellation Act, a bill that I first introduced in 1998, in the broader legislation that passed the House in September of this year. The recent rise of foreclosures and the continuing decline in the housing market has had a devastating effect on homeowners and the idea that the government is  further taxing individuals in this manner after they have lost one of their most valuable assets is one that needed to be changed.

Below are my recent remarks from the House floor:

Mr. ANDREWS. I would like to thank my friend from Ohio for yielding. I would like to thank my friend, Mr. Lewis, for his hard work on this legislation throughout the process, the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. McCrery), and obviously our chairman, Mr. Rangel, and other members of the Ways and Means Committee, Mrs. TUBBS JONES in particular.
   When we started working on this project, it was a matter of simple fairness to Americans who sold a home under difficult circumstances. Now, unfortunately, the problem has grown into one of economic urgency because our economy is in trouble today in large part because of a drop in housing prices and housing values. And one of the reasons that we would have a glut on that market would be if people have to dump their properties on the market because they can't get a workout on the loans that they have because it would raise their taxes to come to a different arrangement with their lender.
   Through the wisdom of the committee, we are fixing this law in such a way that will encourage people to work out an arrangement with their mortgagee to work out a way they can pay their loans and stay in their homes. And if they stay in their home, we won't have that glut of supply in the housing market. If we don't have that glut of supply on the housing market, prices will stabilize and not drop, which will mean more Americans have more home equity, more Americans have economic confidence, and our economy can rebound.
   So I want to thank all those both on the Democratic and Republican side of the aisle for making this project a reality, in particular the staff of the Ways and Means Committee, for their hard work in making this a reality and urge a ``yes'' vote on this bill.
 

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