UPDATE: Our coalition letter in opposition.

Along with other advocacy groups, we've been working many months with House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-MA) to craft a strong bill to prevent mortgage abuses. His efforts have been laudatory, but largely because the Congressional process is so dominated by special interests, his modified compromise bill HR 3915, sponsored with others including Brad Miller (D-NC), no longer achieves the goals he set out for it. In particular, its broad sweep of preemptive limits on state law remedies outweighs its benefits. We are joining with the National Association of Consumer Advocates and the National Consumer Law Center -- expert groups whose lawyers represent in court the low-income consumers who have been most hammered by abusive mortgage practices -- in a letter in opposition to the bill. I will post our letter when finalized. If the bill passes (and those special interests still oppose it from the wrong side so the outcome is not clear) we hope to improve it in the Senate.