J. Thomas Black - Bankruptcy News - NACBA Prez Testifies For Bill To Allow Mortgage Changes

National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys (NACBA) President Henry Sommer is testifying today before the Senate Judiciary Committee in support of S. 2136, the "Helping Families Save Their Homes Act,? introduced earlier this year by Senator Richard Durbin (D, IL).

NACBA has played a key role in advising Senator Durbin's staff on the substance of the bill, which would amend the bankruptcy laws to allow for the modification of a home mortgage in Chapter 13. The bill would permit a debtor in Chapter 13 bankruptcy to, for example lower the interest rate of a mortgage, change an adjustable rate to a fixed rate, extend the term of a mortgage, or even reduce the principal balance of a mortgage to equal the value of the house.

NACBA has been joined in its efforts to help families save their homes from foreclosure by the National Consumer Law Center, the Consumer Federation of America and the Center for Responsible Lending. A number of other organizations, including AARP, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, AFL CIO and the National Women's Law Center, also are supporting the legislation. Other witnesses at today's hearing include economist Mark Zandi, a Chicago homeowner who would be helped by the legislation, Illinois Bankruptcy Judge Jacqueline Cox, Alabama Bankruptcy Judge Thomas Bennett, ABI Resident Scholar Mark Scarberry, and Drexel University professor Joseph Mason.

The hearing begins at 2:30 p.m. ET. Testimony from the hearing will be posted about the time the hearing starts and may be found at http://judiciary.senate.gov/hearing.cfm?id=3046. It is not clear if there will be a Webcast of the hearing; if there is, you can find it by going to http://judiciary.senate.gov/. If there is no Committee Web cast, C-SPAN provides audiocast. To find the C-SPAN link, go to http://www.capitolhearings.org/, scroll down to the hearing and click on the room number.

By all means, if you are in favor of this bill, S. 2136, contact your U.S. Senators' offices and tell them that you are in favor of the bill and that you want them to support it. Here in Texas, our U.S. Senators are Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn. You can contact Senator Hutchison at http://www.senate.gov/~hutchison/contact.html and Senator Cornyn at http://cornyn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.Home