By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS, AP
Posted: 3:46 am
July 24, 2008
WASHINGTON - Congress is moving quickly to pass a housing package that aims to help 400,000 strapped homeowners avoid foreclosures and prevent Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from collapsing.
Momentum for passage picked up mightily after President Bush earlier yesterday dropped his opposition to the bill just hours before a scheduled vote in the House.
That put the legislation on track toward enactment as early as the end of the week.
Bush's decision to sign the bill came despite his strong resistance to including $3.9 billion in the measure for neighborhoods hit hardest by foreclosures.
The administration and lawmakers in both parties teamed to negotiate the election-year measure, which pairs Democrats' top priorities - federal help for homeowners facing foreclosure and $3.9 billion for devastated neighborhoods - with Republicans' goal of reining in mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac while reassuring financial markets of their stability.
In a policy statement on the bill, the White House said that parts of it "are too important to the stability of our nation's housing market, financial system and the broader economy not to be enacted immediately."
Bush had objected to the neighborhood grants, saying that they would help bankers and lenders, not homeowners who are in trouble.
