Our Real Estate Blog

Sept. 23, 2008

Today, the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee held a hearing to discuss the U.S. Dept. of the Treasury’s proposal to stabilize the U.S. financial system. The panel consisted of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson; Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke; Christopher Cox, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission; and James Lockhart, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

Now that Congress has had a chance to dissect the Treasury proposal, we’re seeing pushback to the plan in its current form from both sides of the aisle, and this was evident during today’s hearing. Members of Congress are asking for several additions or refinements to the proposal, including:

• Legislation to help homeowners avoid foreclosure;
• limiting compensation to executives of troubled firms receiving assistance;
• greater oversight than the limited bi-annual reporting mechanism in the current proposal;
• allowing the government to take an ownership stake in companies;
  decreasing the timeframe for the Treasury workout from two years to one; and
• limiting the initial outlay followed by a reassessment early next year prior to deploying additional resources.

With the general election in November a little more than a month away, there also is a certain amount of to-be-expected political posturing going on this week. Members of Congress will soon return to their home districts for recess and will be expected to explain their positions to constituents. However, some of the pushback is philosophically driven from both liberals and conservatives in both parties.

To view today’s hearing, go to:
http://banking.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?Fuseaction=Hearings.Detail&HearingID=7a41ae9e-30b2-4d7f-8f1b-4ef2e8ae28f7.

Tomorrow, 9/24/2008, the House Financial Services Committee will convene for a 9 a.m. PDT hearing with Paulson and Bernanke again scheduled to testify, as well as member of Congress. We’ll report tomorrow’s developments to you in C.A.R. Newsline.