Private+Bill

Floor Situation ===On Tuesday, March 29, 2011, the House is scheduled consider H.R. 839, the HAMP Termination Act of 2011, under a rule. The rule provides for one hour of debate equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on Financial Services. Additionally, the rule makes in order amendments printed in part A of the Rules Committee report accompanying H.Res. 170 and provides for one motion to recommit with or without instructions. The nine amendments printed in part A of the report are summarized below. The bill was introduced by Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) on February 28, 2011, and referred to the Committee on Financial Services. On March 9, 2011, a mark-up was held and the bill was reported by a recorded vote of 32-23.===

Executive Summary ===The legislation would amend the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (aka “TARP”) to terminate the authority of the Secretary of the Treasury to provide new mortgage modification assistance under the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), except with respect to existing obligations on behalf of homeowners already extended an offer to participate in the program.===

The legislation would also direct the Secretary to conduct a study to determine the extent of use of HAMP by members of the Armed Forces, Veterans, and Gold Star recipients.
===Lastly, the legislation would also direct the Secretary of the Treasury to post a cancellation notice of the Home Affordable Modification Program on its website and encourage struggling homeowners to contact their Member of Congress.===

Background ===The Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), part of President Obama’s “Making Home Affordable” (MHA) initiative, has been singled out for slow uptake and the Treasury Department’s failure to set and monitor metrics for the program’s success. The Treasury Department has obligated $29.9 billion of TARP funding to pay servicer, borrower, and investor incentives under HAMP. As of December 2010, a total of 522,000 permanent modifications were in place under HAMP at a cost of approximately $1.0 billion. Successive SIGTARP quarterly reports, in addition to reports from the Congressional Oversight Panel and the Government Accountability Office, have been particularly critical of the Program.===