This week, the House passed H.R. 5818, the Neighborhood Stabilization Act and H.R. 3221, the American Housing Rescue and Foreclosure Prevention Act. These bills authorize federal assistance for people and localities that face foreclosures due to the struggling housing market. A vote on an emergency supplemental appropriations bill was postponed after House Democrat leaders refused to allow any amendments to the bill.

Hollywood Snubs a Real Private Ryan

Former Army Spc. Jason Hubbard is tragically a real life Private Ryan. Hubbard lost two brothers, Marine Lance Cpl. Jared Hubbard and Army Cpl. Nathan Hubbard, in Iraq. As the only surviving brother, Jason Hubbard decided to leave the Army under the sole-survivor policy, which grants an honorable discharge for a member who has lost a close relative during service. When Hubbard discharged, however, a bureaucratic nightmare began. Although he was discharged honorably, the Army attempted to recollect his signing bonus, take away his educational benefits, and deny his family transitional healthcare since he had not fulfilled his initial service obligations. Hubbard has served his country under the most difficult of circumstances. His sacrifices have more than fulfilled his commitment to this nation. Thankfully, after pressure from my colleague Representative Devin Nunes (R-CA), the Army eventually allowed Hubbard to receive his benefits. But it should not take a waiver of regulations to make this occur. I am a cosponsor of legislation which amends the law so that a member of the armed forces who discharges honorably using the sole-survivor provisions will receive fair treatment, and receive the same benefits as others who are honorably discharged after their service. Ironically, when the stars of the movie Saving Private Ryan were contacted to elicit their support for the legislation, none of them were willing to do so. I guess Hollywood is only interested in this issue when it means making astronomical amounts of money telling a story, but not when given a chance to help a real-life case.

Causing a Crisis

For over 40 years, the Federal Family Education Loan Program – the nation’s original student loan program – provided a stable source of loans for students to attend college. As part of the program, the government paid part of the fee necessary to compensate banks for making loans at lower interest rates. All this changed in September of 2007 when Congressional Democrats pushed through a bill, ironically called the College Cost Reduction and Access Act, which sharply cut fees paid to lenders. Just as credit markets were tightening up and it became harder to get money to lend, the newly-passed legislation meant many lenders would be paid less than what it cost them to make loans to students. Not surprisingly 47 lenders have left the student loan program since the beginning of the year. Together, these lenders made 13.5% of the loans under this federal program. And 37 lenders have stopped helping students consolidate their loans, which represented over 75% of the consolidation market. Now the Democrats are trying to fix the problem they created, and predictably they are proposing a big government solution that would force students into the government-controlled and operated direct lending program. Instead, Congress should repeal the newly-created legislation so that lenders can actually afford to return to the federal student loan program and resume making loans, thereby restoring stability to the student loan market and ensuring students will have access to the lending options needed to attain higher education.

Quote of the Week

"Those who think they can revive the stinking corpse of the usurping and fake Israeli regime by throwing a birthday party are seriously mistaken…Today the reason for the Zionist regime's existence is questioned, and this regime is on its way to annihilation.” – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, commenting on the 60th anniversary of the State of Israel, as quoted by the French news agency AFP on May 8, 2008.