Senate Proceeding 04-08-08 on Apr 8th, 2008 :: 1:52:41 to 1:59:37
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1:52:41 to 1:52:54( Edit History Discussion )

Robert P. Casey, Jr.: a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from pennsylvania. mr. casey: madam president, i rise to speak about -- the presiding officer: we're in a quorum call, senator. mr. casey:

1:52:41 to 1:59:37( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Robert P. Casey, Jr.

1:52:54 to 1:53:06( Edit History Discussion )

Robert P. Casey, Jr.: may i ask unanimous consent that the quorum call be vitiated. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. casey: madam president, i rise to speak about a housing matter. we -- i have

1:53:06 to 1:53:27( Edit History Discussion )

Robert P. Casey, Jr.: two amendments but i'm only speaking about them today. i won't beon calling them up but i did want to speak very briefly and very generally about both of them, two very important matters that come before

1:53:27 to 1:53:41( Edit History Discussion )

Robert P. Casey, Jr.: us on -- on -- as part of, i should say, our debate on housing. the first involves appraisals. we know that one of the biggest concerns that a lot of people have in the problem of subprime mortgages and

1:53:41 to 1:53:55( Edit History Discussion )

Robert P. Casey, Jr.: in the aftermath of a lot of bad loans was that faulty and sometimes fraudulent appraisals were part of that. the first amendment i'll speak of today deals with the question of how do we get a second

1:53:55 to 1:54:12( Edit History Discussion )

Robert P. Casey, Jr.: independent appraisal for properties that are called flipped properties, when you have a property that may go into foreclosure and then it is sold later, sometimes it -- we have instances where the property

1:54:12 to 1:54:26( Edit History Discussion )

Robert P. Casey, Jr.: is sold at grosslyro inflated prices that don't reflect the true value and then down the road another purchaser or homeowner would buy it and then you have the extraordinary inflation. often fraudulent

1:54:26 to 1:54:44( Edit History Discussion )

Robert P. Casey, Jr.: inflation of the cost of a property. so what this amendment does -- and our office has worked closely with senator martinez on this as well -- is to make it very clear that in those instances when

1:54:44 to 1:54:54( Edit History Discussion )

Robert P. Casey, Jr.: you have a house flipped, so to speak, within 180 days of the o -- of the date of purchase, t hat there will, in fact, be a second independent appraisal done. now some of the work on this in the

1:54:54 to 1:55:08( Edit History Discussion )

Robert P. Casey, Jr.: other body has been done by representative paul kanjorski. he's worked on these issues for f years and i want to commend him for his work in the congress on these and other matters that pertain

1:55:08 to 1:55:25( Edit History Discussion )

Robert P. Casey, Jr.: to housing and to the -- the financial questions that arise with regard to affordable housing. first of all, we want to make sure that in those instances, a second independent appraisal is done

1:55:25 to 1:55:39( Edit History Discussion )

Robert P. Casey, Jr.: and it would have to be by a qualified appraiser. that would mean that the appraiser has to be certified in the state or somehow lowicensed in the state and secondly, that the appraisal is performed in --

1:55:39 to 1:55:51( Edit History Discussion )

Robert P. Casey, Jr.: in conformi ty with uniform standards of professional appraisal practice. to make sure that it's done the right way. we want to make sure that consumers are given a copy of that appraisal, that

1:55:51 to 1:56:03( Edit History Discussion )

Robert P. Casey, Jr.: it's done thoroughly and that a statement is made by the credit hear that any appraisal prepared -- creditor that any appraisal prepared for the mortgage is for the sole use of the creditor and

1:56:03 to 1:56:15( Edit History Discussion )

Robert P. Casey, Jr.: that the creditor may choose to have a separate appraisal conducted at their expense. there will be heavily heavy penalties imposed for those who who -- heavy penalties rows imoazed for those who

1:56:15 to 1:56:31( Edit History Discussion )

Robert P. Casey, Jr.: deal with this. and it's one of the various problems we encounter when it comes to so many difficulties the families are facing right now. one of the worst things that can happen to a homeowner who

1:56:31 to 1:56:47( Edit History Discussion )

Robert P. Casey, Jr.: saves and borrows -- saves their money and borrows money to -- to fulfill a dream of owning a home is to be given -- presented with, i should say, the situation where they buy a home that has been

1:56:47 to 1:56:57( Edit History Discussion )

Robert P. Casey, Jr.: grossly and fraudulently inflated beyond its value and they don't find out about that until those who perpetrated the fraud are far away and have already made their money. this will hold people in

1:56:57 to 1:57:13( Edit History Discussion )

Robert P. Casey, Jr.: the market accountable as they should be held accountable. so we'll have more time to talk about it later. i just wanted to make another point about my separate amendment. in the city of philadelphia,

1:57:13 to 1:57:26( Edit History Discussion )

Robert P. Casey, Jr.: like in many of our major urban areas, housing is a terribly difficult challenge for so many people. we have in the city of philadelphia more than 80,000 philadelphia ns. as h.u.d. housing and urban development

1:57:26 to 1:57:37( Edit History Discussion )

Robert P. Casey, Jr.: officials would call them, clients. more than 80,000 clients in the city of philadelphia who rely upon h.u.d. and the a housing authority there to provide affordable housing in that city. a dispute

1:57:37 to 1:57:52( Edit History Discussion )

Robert P. Casey, Jr.: has arisen about a number of things. we don't need to go into the reasons for though disputes but because of a dispute, now there's an agreement that was worked out between h.u.d. and the housing

1:57:52 to 1:58:08( Edit History Discussion )

Robert P. Casey, Jr.: authority called the moving to work agreement, which has allowed people not just to have the benefit of an agreement that provides them with the opportunity to live in -- in housing that's -- that's

1:58:08 to 1:58:19( Edit History Discussion )

Robert P. Casey, Jr.: safe and affordable but also this agreement has allowed the philadelphia housing authority to use the leverage of this agreement to borrow money and to finance other housing priorities in the city of philadelphia.

1:58:19 to 1:58:32( Edit History Discussion )

Robert P. Casey, Jr.: because of that, because of the importance of that agreement, we want to make sure that the agreement stays in place at least for a year. and that's what the amendment that i've -- senator specter

1:58:32 to 1:58:46( Edit History Discussion )

Robert P. Casey, Jr.: and i have been working on -- that's the reason for it, to give a one-year extension so that the moving to work agreement in the city of philadelphia with the united states housing and urban development

1:58:46 to 1:59:02( Edit History Discussion )

Robert P. Casey, Jr.: agency stays in place for one year so that we can ton work out an arrangement between the housing authority and h.u.d. unfortunately, we haven't been successful. we've been working for many months on

1:59:02 to 1:59:14( Edit History Discussion )

Robert P. Casey, Jr.: this, but i think it's critically important not to allow a bureaucratic fight between a housing authority and a federal agency to interferefe with important services that are provided to -- to philadelphians

1:59:14 to 1:59:26( Edit History Discussion )

Robert P. Casey, Jr.: who benefit from this, some more than 80,000 philadelphians. so they're the two amendments i wanted to speak about. we'll have time later as we proceed to deal with them more directly. but i wanted

1:59:26 to 1:59:37( Edit History Discussion )

Robert P. Casey, Jr.: to make sure that we make both thorough and accurate and independent appraisals a priority stwoals make sure that when we're dealing with a local -- as well as to make sure that when we're dealing

1:59:37 to 2:00:17( Edit History Discussion )

with a local housing authority, we don't let a dispute prevent philadelphians from getting the benefit of the services provided, in this case by the moving to work agreement. madam president, i yield the floor