Issa chastises ranking member over requests to subpoena banks

“I am disappointed that it [Cumming’s letter] does not acknowledge the past and continuing efforts mades by this committee to examine foreclosures,” Issa wrote. 

Issa noted that the panel held a foreclosure hearing in Baltimore, as well as his “willingness to invite representatives from mortgage servicing companies to testify and answer questions at this hearing, but you did not make any such request.”

“While I understand there is a question about whether you received Bank of America’s response, your staff’s failure to follow-up [sic] on a non-response before concluding that a subpoena is necessary raises questions about the thoroughness of these efforts and the information you have so far shared,” Issa wrote. 

Issa said his staff contacted Bank of America in May and found that the firm had responded to Cummings’s request for information about its foreclosure processes on March 25. 

“Nevertheless, I do not expect this or other possible missteps will ultimately determine whether a subpoena is indeed the prudent next step,” Issa wrote. “Majority staff are working to gather necessary information from their minority counterparts. Please help me help you by ensuring the full cooperation of your staff, without the continued delays that have so far occurred in this process.”

On Tuesday, Cummings sent a letter to Issa pressing the panel to issue subpoenas requiring mortgage servicing companies to produce previously requested documents.

“You have not hesitated in other investigations to issue subpoenas in a matter of days when your deadlines were missed, so it is unclear why a different standard applies to this investigation,” Cummings wrote. 

“This same sense of urgency should apply even when the targets of the committee’s investigation are banks.”

On Feb. 10 the committee unanimously voted to investigate “the foreclosure crisis including wrongful foreclosures and other abuses by mortgage servicing companies,” Cummings said. 

“If mortgage servicing companies are allowed to disregard requests for documents that are integral to this investigation, the committee’s integrity will be called into question and, more importantly, abuses may continue,” he wrote.

On May 24, Cummings sent a letter to Issa requesting that the committee issue subpoenas to six mortgage servicing companies that have refused to provide documents relating to foreclosure abuses.