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Last Minute Attempt to Gut Foreclosure Reform

Two bills to curb Oregon's foreclosure crisis were passed last week by the Oregon Senate with strong bi-partisan support. SB 1552 and SB 1564 were both voted out of the chamber. The story is quite different in the House, where Republican leaders have decided to take the bills in a much different direction. Yesterday, House Republicans shared their proposed amendment to SB 1552 that contains a veritable “wish list” of big bank items. The Oregonian had an overview of the gut and stuff today, but we’d like to take a moment to highlight just a few of the outrageous proposals:

- Retroactively legalizing the highly controversial and cloudy chain of title issues surrounding the Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, or MERS. MERS was developed as a way for banks to avoid paying county recording fees every time a mortgage was sold to a new investor. The problem is that without public recording, it’s unclear to the homeowner who owns the loan, and therefore who has the right to foreclose.

- Eliminating the implementation of a mandatory pre-foreclosure mediation program as outlined in SB 1552.

- Repealing the Attorney General’s authority to go after banks that engage in abusive mortgage servicing practices.

Not only would the proposed amendment not provide any protections against foreclosure for Oregonians, it would actually leave them more vulnerable by rolling back the AG’s enforcement authority. Don’t let a few legislators who are more in step with banks than their constituents block real progress on solving Oregon’s foreclosure crisis! Please take a moment to call your Representatives at 1.800.332.2313 and urge them to support SB 1552 and SB 1564 – without any amendments. After you do so, please let us know how your calls went!

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Economic Fairness Oregon is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to consumer protection and fair lending laws. Our goal is to restore a financial system built to work for the people, not against them.

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