Legislative History
In the wake of the bursting of the United States housing bubble and the collapse of the American subprime mortgage industry, this bill was introduced by Rep. John Conyers (D-Michigan) on February 23, 2009. It was then referred to the House Financial Services Committee, the House Judiciary Committee, and the House Veterans' Affairs Committee.
However, on February 25, the House passed a resolution, 224-198, which permitted the Speaker of the House to declare the House resolved into the Committee of the Whole House for exclusive consideration of the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act, waiving most points of order against consideration of the bill and all points of order against provisions of the bill.
On February 26, the House considered the bill under the provisions of the resolution passed the previous day, which provided for one hour of general debate. With Rep. José Serrano (D-New York) designated as chairman of the committee, the House debated the bill for one hour and then left it as unfinished business.
On March 5, the House voted to pass the bill, 234-191, with most Democrats supporting the bill and most Republicans opposing it.
The engrossed House legislation was referred to the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs on March 11, 2009. Similar legislation, S. 895 and S. 896 were both introduced on April 27, 2009 since then. On May 6, the Senate passed S.896 on a vote of 91-5. The key difference between H.R.1106 and S.896 is that the latter does not include a controversial cram down provision, which failed to garner majority support in the Senate. On May 19, the House approved an amended version of S. 896 by a 367-54 vote, with one member voting "present". The Senate promptly approved the House's amendment, and President Obama signed the bill into law the next day.
Read more about this topic: Helping Families Save Their Homes Act Of 2009
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