Bush tells lawmakers to act on bill to aid homeowners

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. | President Bush called on Congress Tuesday to pass a housing bill when members return to work next week, as the White House blamed legislators for not acting sooner to help homeowners prevent foreclosure.

Leading Democrats, however, said the White House finger-pointing was “divorced from reality” and that Republican senators had intentionally stalled the housing bill.

“Congress can help when they come back to pass a good piece of housing legislation,” Mr. Bush said. “I think we can get us a bill, but it’s going to require less politics and more focus in keeping our minds on who we need to help, and that´s the homeowner.”

Earlier in the day, White House press secretary Tony Fratto blasted the Democrat-controlled Congress for inaction, pointing to Mr. Bush´s call for a housing bill at the end of August 2007.

“It’s hard to believe that we’ve gone 10 months now waiting for Congress to act,” Mr. Fratto told reporters on board Air Force One. “Every day that we wait, the problem gets worse, more people go into foreclosure.”

Foreclosures in May were up 50 percent over last year, with 261,255 homes receiving at least one foreclosure-related filing, up from 176,137.

Foreclosures are likely to continue at high levels into the summer and fall, as subprime adjustable-rate mortgages are scheduled to reset at their highest level, following the peak of the housing bubble in 2005 and 2006.

Congress is on vacation this week, after recessing last week without reaching an agreement on the housing bill.

Democrats blamed the delay on a group of Republicans led by Sen. John Ensign, Nevada Republican, who attached an amendment including renewable energy tax incentives to the housing bill.

“Maybe the president can make a few calls to the Hill to try and get Republicans to stop blocking our bill,” said Jim Manley, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat.

“For months now, they have been fighting our efforts to deal with this crisis every step of the way,” Mr. Manley said.

But an Ensign spokesman said the renewable energy amendment passed the Senate in April by a vote of 88-8, and that after House Democrats stripped it from the bill, Mr. Ensign reattached it.

Democrats say the amendment does not include offsets to pay for itself, but Ensign spokesman Tory Mazzola said that complaint was “hypocrisy.”

The housing bill, Mr. Mazzola said, already includes $2.5 billion in tax incentives that are not off-set.

“All we want is a vote. We´re talking about an issue that everybody agrees on, renewable energy,” Mr. Mazzola said.

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