White House threatens to veto GOP bills that end housing relief

The Obama administration is threatening to veto a pair of bills from House Republicans that would eliminate relief programs for homeowners.

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) said it would recommend that the president veto two bills that would eliminate housing relief if they reach his desk. OMB said the programs are vital to the economic recovery and needed to help homeowners avoid foreclosure.

The bills are scheduled to be considered on the House floor at the end of this week.

The pair of veto threats came one day before Republicans on the House Financial Services Committee plan to markup an additional two bills that would kill administration housing relief programs — including the cornerstone of that effort, the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP).

In a statement of administration policy, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) said it would advise the president to veto H.R. 836, which would terminate the Emergency Mortgage Relief Program. 

That program, authorized by the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, gave the Department of Housing and Urban Development $1 billion to make emergency mortgage relief payments for homeowners facing foreclosure.

The administration defended the program, saying it would help up to 30,000 struggling homeowners over the next two and a half years.

A similar statement recommended a veto to H.R. 830, which would shut down a mortgage refinancing program administered by the Federal Housing Administration. The White House said that since nearly 25 percent of mortgages cost more than the homes they are financing, the refinancing program is “vital to the nation’s sustained economic recovery.”

Both of those bills were approved by the House Financial Services Committee March 2 in a party line vote.

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) touted the measures Sunday, saying they would save taxpayers $8 billion and begin shutting down the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), under which the housing program are administered.

House Republicans have set their sights on the administration’s housing relief programs in recent weeks, introducing and pushing four bills that each would kill a program. The GOP contends that the programs are wasteful, costly and ineffective.

{mosads}”Congress needs to stop funding programs that don’t work with money we don’t have,” Financial Services Committee Chairman Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.) said at the March 2 markup.

But Democrats on the committee strongly opposed the bills, and pointed out that if the measures are approved by the House, they are not likely to be approved by the Senate, where Democrats retain a majority.

“They’re going nowhere in the Senate — this is all about the message game,” said Rep. Mel Watt (D-N.C.) at the markup.