Emphasizes Work to Address Mortgage Crisis, Record Against Harmful Bankruptcy Reform Law
CEDAR RAPIDS – Senator and Presidential Candidate Chris Dodd continued his “12 Days of Results” tour across Iowa, today focusing on his leadership in providing economic opportunities for all Americans and his work to ensure the safety and soundness of our financial markets. Dodd is the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, a Committee on which he has served for his entire Senate career.
Speaking at the Horizons Family Alliance, Dodd discussed the pressures that middle class families are facing in light of declining incomes, rising health premiums, and the subprime mortgage crisis. Dodd has been a leader in addressing the far-reaching effects of the mortgage market turmoil by applying pressure on financial institutions and regulators to ensure that a crisis of this magnitude never occurs again, and by working to keep Americans who are currently facing foreclosure in their homes.
Dodd also emphasized his record of opposing bankruptcy “reform” legislation that disproportionately penalized our nation’s most vulnerable families by leaving them without a safety net. He is the only Presidential candidate in the Senate to repeatedly and consistently oppose this so-called “reform” legislation, which was written by the credit card companies, passed by a compliant Congress, and signed into law by President Bush.
“It would have been very easy for me to give in to the big creditors who desperately wanted me to support their bankruptcy bill, but my first obligation was to protect and stand up for children and families,” said Dodd. “In a Dodd Administration, hardworking people who have fallen on hard times will be afforded a new beginning that re-establishes a safety net and helps families get back on their feet.”
Dodd’s comprehensive bankruptcy reform plan will:
- Protect children, not creditors – mothers and children will no longer be in direct competition with credit card companies and collection departments for child support payments.
- Modify the means test – families will have sufficient resources to live on
- Ensure all medical debts are dischargeable – never again will a medical illness result in a family’s financial ruin.
- Help families keep their homes – bankruptcy courts will be permitted to let families restructure their mortgages
- Allow private student loans to be dischargeable – paying for college will never drive a family into bankruptcy.
Dodd continues his “Results” tour on Saturday in Coralville where the topic will be Democracy and his leadership in authoring the Help America Vote Act.
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