Flip-flopping for Special Interest Money

Last week, the House passed financial reform legislation that would help consumers and create a Consumer Financial Protection Agency, but they missed an opportunity to push for even greater mortgage reform.

On Friday, forty-five Representatives changed their votes from “Aye” to “Nay” and helped vote down a mortgage provision that would have allowed people to stay in their homes through the help of judicial mortgage modifications.  In March, these same Representatives supported an identical bill as a stand-alone bill, the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act of 2009.  So what changed between that vote and this one?

The money.

Since the last vote, the special interests in the housing market have been throwing money at these forty-five House members in attempt to buy their votes.  Our friends at Common Cause and Public Campaign have put out this press release about who voted against the new foreclosure prevention legislation and just how much cash they received in return for their revoked support.  They say that these forty-five members, some of whom represent areas who are suffering the most from the foreclosure crisis, have received more than $900,000 from the real estate, commercial banking, and credit union industries in the first nine months of this year.

If you agree that it’s time to end this pay-to-play system, find out how your Representative voted on this amendment, and let them know their actions have consequences.

(Photo: RefractedMoments)