Housing bailout bill creates national fingerprint registry
The Senate housing bill approved by a committee this week was already drawing fire from fiscal conservatives and financially responsible homeowners opposed to bailing out housing speculators.
Now it may be time to add privacy advocates to the chorus of voices urging President Bush to veto the bill, which could put taxpayers on the hook for billions of bailout dollars in new taxes or deficit spending.
Buried in the text of the revised legislation, approved by the Senate Banking Committee by a 19-2 vote this week, is a plan to create a new national fingerprint registry. It covers just about everyone involved in the mortgage business, including lenders, "loan originators," and some real estate agents.
"We know that today the rules governing mortgage brokers and lenders are inadequate," Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said in a statement. "There is just a thin patchwork of regulation that varies from state to state. This legislation will create basic minimum standards for states to utilize to protect consumers." Feinstein and Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) wrote a separate bill introduced in February that has been glued onto the revised Senate housing legislation.
What's a little odd is the lack of public discussion about this new fingerprint database. No mention of it appears in the official summary of the revised Senate bill. No fingerprint database requirement is in the House version of the legislation approved earlier this month. No copy of the revised Senate legislation is posted on the Library of Congress' Thomas Web site, which would be the usual procedure.
The feds' new fingerprint database would function like this: Any "loan originator" must furnish "fingerprints for submission to the Federal Bureau of Investigation" and a wealth of other unnamed government agencies. Loan originator is defined as someone who accepts a residential mortgage application, negotiates terms on a mortgage, advises on loan terms, prepares loan packages, or collects information on behalf of the consumer. Real estate agents are covered if they get "compensation" of any sort (including kickbacks) from loan originators.
It's true that some states already have fingerprinting requirements. Colorado requires "mortgage brokers" (a narrower category) to get fingerprinted. So do Kansas, Mississippi, and Montana, for instance.
In the proposed federal system, what remains unclear is what happens to the fingerprints once submitted. The legislation talks about a "background check"--which would imply a one-time use--but also creates a Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System and Registry that "provides increased accountability and tracking of loan originators." Neither Feinstein's nor Martinez's offices returned our phone calls and e-mail messages asking for clarification on Friday morning.
The bill does specify that the registry will be run by the Conference of State Bank Supervisors and the American Association of Residential Mortgage Regulators. Those two groups are currently developing a "central repository" of information with document collecting and fingerprinting that "will be accessed through a secure Web site over the Internet."
"I imagine that, yes, a fingerprint registry might stop an ex-con from handling loans, but I doubt it will make even a dent in the lending problems the bill aims to stop," says John Berlau, director of the Center for Entrepreneurship at the free-market Competitive Enterprise Institute. "And I would venture to guess that the vast majority of the problem mortgages were handled by employees with no criminal record. Rather, this seem like another thoughtless idea that lets politicians brag that they are 'getting tough' about a particular problem."
Berlau makes a good point. Creating a database of fingerprints of "loan originators" and a subset of real estate agents might make sense. It might not. But it surely would have been reasonable to have an informed debate on the topic before politicians rushed to enact federal legislation before the Senate's Memorial Day recess, and it would surely be wise to insist on security and privacy protections when the bill goes to the full Senate. Unfortunately, there's little reason to believe either will actually happen.
News.com's Anne Broache contributed to this report.
Declan McCullagh, CNET News' chief political correspondent, chronicles the intersection of politics and technology. He has covered politics, technology, and Washington, D.C., for more than a decade, which has turned him into an iconoclast and a skeptic of anyone who says, "We oughta have a new federal law against this." E-mail Declan.
I am not for a nanny state, however I do support SOME nannying of some people.... but only those who have proven that they cannot take care of themselves by doing the same stupid thing more than once.
We just won't allow people to grow up and make their own mistakes in this world today, which is 99% of how people learn in the real world.
It would be nice to go back to the "good old days", and I suspect back then people conducted themselves with a good degree more business ethics, than is common-place now.
I suspect the real enemy of individual freedoms is not the Government, but the people themselves, behaving in ways that force Authorities to respond. Without the sub-prime sharks
, there would be no need for this regressive legislation.
Kind Regards.....
The reason why most of us don't wanna obey any of the new laws anymore is because it's a big fat stupid joke.
You claim it's the peoples fault but it's not, we have been manipulated by the secret societies the whole time since America was born.
We were promised a quality for all but it was only white males, not women or blacks. So you tell me it's the peoples fault when clearly we were lied to by our government since blacks were hurt by white people.
'
It wasn't just blacks, indians were kicked in the a** by our stupid government that claims we have freedom for all. They had to fight for their rights.
Not everything is the peoples fault and more restrictions give even me disrespect for the law, I even think now cops are evil like the nazis because cops have to follow orders from the dictator.
and We did nothing to stop Bush, we did nothing, we didn't punish him for war crimes, we didn't tried to actually kick him out for what hes done to all of us.
Maybe your right, maybe it is our fault, cause the people did nothing but more stealing, gas theft, more and more are hurting, and we have more debts the world has ever seen.
The People are brainwashed and always has, CNNs a joke, MSNBC is a joke, even FOX News is a Big Fat Joke.
Looks like the bilderbergs win when they wanted more people like me to become criminals, and looks like they win when they destroyed America to create the North American Union, oh im sure the majority of the people didn't even know about the NAU, oh how typical it's the peoples fault when we were manipulated by secret society members in the Senate and white house.
America is a joke, maybe thats why the terorists hate America, we are a joke cause Bush is a bilderberg member, so is Obama (Osama), so is Mccain, and so is Hillary Clinton.
THEY ARE ALL IN SECRET SOCIETIES ;'( we are not in a democracy nor were we ever in one, it was always controlled by the roughchild and bilderbergs.
We had one good president that tried to defy the Bilderbergs and he got killed by a bilderberg banker and racist and probably the KKK works with them.
We Never Had a democracy, it isn't our fault because we didn't know the secret societies did BS behind the scenes such as poisoning us with mercury and flouride so we become retarded and stupid, then they give us fake news or restricted news controlled by our government and corporations, then we be called conspiracy theorists so we look bad, and then they can get away with murder, child molestation while we the people get the blame for child hurting, they can even get away with raising gas prices cause we think its peak oil when it's really a SCAM, and they can even get away with eugenics and genocide, yes the Georgia guide stones says it all that our president and other bilderberg members worldwide will try to exterminate humans worldwide including the Iraq War to thin our population by over 70 percent.
Are we smart we let Bush cheat the elections and we never fought back against the Bush Administration for what damage hes done to our country. You people oughta be ashamed of yourselfs, letting a bilderberg dictator rule the world and will make America as bad as a bomb zone of terrorism until they round us off in FEMA Camps until we get the mark of the beast and worship Satan.
Yeah you people are real smart after letting Satans right hand people rule over the world.
Now I'm depressed
Without the burden of millions of laws and regulations, our citizens could actually enjoy the inalienable rights that the ?land of the free? promised.
I am always amazed how many people in the "Land of the Free" do not seem to understand what responsible freedom is and what produces and protects it.
1) Freedom is the inalienable right of any human to choose to think, say and do,whatever one wants, with the restriction that the choice does not significantly infringe on the equal rights of any other human. Freedom is the right to think,say or do what your neighbor and/or government in times past would persecute, jail and kill you for. Many people say they believe in freedom, but they often only mean the freedoms that they personally value not the freedoms their neighbor might value. If you were to ask a loyal Saddam supporter in Iraq before the U.S. attack, if they were free, they would probably say yes because the freedoms they valued would be legal. They would claim that only crminal law breakers have a problem with Saddam. If this definition of freedom were true then all nations and empires have been free. I am sure Hitler felt like he was "free" in Nazi Germany!
2) Politicians are always talking about supporting freedom through the establishment of democracies in non-democratic nations. It seems like they fail to understand that freedom is not created by democracy. Freedom, in order to exist in any nation, must be established and protected by a covenant agreement such as the U.S. Constitution which is agreed to by the government and the governed. A democracy without this condition is simply another form of tyranny. It is the U.S. Constitution with its' checks and balances and the Bill of Rights that is responsible for producing and protecting freedom in the U.S. of A.!
Why can't the people break laws since our government is torturing people, spying on everyone, and the whole ACTA trade agreement will shatter privacy forever.
So since our government is shattering the Constitution, maybe thats why many hates the police, they just work for the tyrannical government.
Those are the ONLY laws and 'guidelines' that we need in a good society, and 'society' needs to butt out of the person choices of most people.
Why don't you create a questionnaire for the presidential candidates regarding privacy issues, and ask about creating a cabinet-level Privacy Czar?
Tanks Advance
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Harvey Mars
http://news.cnet.com/2009-1028_3-6237418.html
I do have a problem bailing out speculators who helped fuel this ridiculous, overpriced, market. They wouldn't be helped if it were the stock market, there's no reason to help bail THOSE people out for their bad real estate investments. Not only did they make a bad decision for themselves, but they helped boost prices for everybody else who simply wanted a place to live.
As for fingerprinting mortgage brokers, although I'm not against it, I'm not sure what it'll get. The term "Ex-Cons" was used. Face it, I'd be willing to bet that most, if not all, of the sleezy loans that were made were via "legitimate" brokers who had never committed an offense in their lives - or at least never been CAUGHT. I think I'd be willing to trust a so-called "Ex-Con" who has a demonstrated track record of cleaning their act up than most bankers out there.
We recently refinanced and when I read the papers, I thought that they had vastly overvalued our property. I told them this and they said that their numbers were right. But the form hadn't even been filled in correctly. I'm not a mortgage lending specialist, but they assured me that the valuation was correct. Then they actually did an appraisal, and the house's value was much lower - but more in line with what I thought the value was. And this was Countrywide. I'm glad the value was lowered on the papers, because they were talking about a ridiculous amount of money.
I think it should also be a regulation that a photographic database be maintained of all federal employees, including elected officials and their staff . . . of their bare breasts; headshots including upper torsos unclothed. No eyewear. This is important. These photographic identification tools are vital, not only to national security but also to public safety, and the health and welfare of the nation. And I promise only the security screeners at our airports will be authorized to stare directly at the photographs, and only in the line of duty, from the hours of 10:00 AM to 12:47 PM. I'm serious, now.
It's all well and good protecting "the public" - but who is protecting those ofl us in the databases? The answer is no one. Until the issues of confidentiality, security, & accuracy are addressed, the entire system needs to be scrapped.
Dale Sampson, RN
It didn't take me much to get that fixed, one call to my cousin who works for the FBI and intervention by his boss and that was taken off my record.
It would be like me buying a car for the first time (I have never done that)... I would be CLUELESS and since I don't like to admit that I am clueless, I would still go alone and try to navigate my way through the forms, probably getting taken for a ride in the process.
No?
Then why?
there is no government repair for this fiasco, it will be a perpetual problem for the next ten years, the forclosures are going to be stupendous,, and hell, were only on the tip of the iceberg here. These bad loans are ten years deep.--- the new empty homes set about the country like monuments of a time when manipulation of money was at its peak. (It was at its peak!) Remember Bush three weeks ago "not going to do a bail out" Personally, As a tax payer, I didn`t have anything to do with the money minipulation criminal activity that created this mess, leave my tax dollars out of it.
Dave F.
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by Dschuessler1
September 25, 2008 12:03 PM PDT
- So here we are in the midst of the greatest economic crisis ever experienced in this country, and probably the world, and what do the power people do? Protect themselves. The "bailout" will protect those that had millions and billions invested in the mortgage industry from the lender side. I sold a home not long ago and lost 47000.00 on the deal just to get out from under it. There wasn't anyone there saying "oh poor baby you made a mistake and we'll fix it for you." at the expense of the rest of the country. The bailout will keep the money people in the money and put their debt on the middle class. As a society we owe the governement 146000.00 each before this bailout. If you're rich you don't have to pay much in the way of tax, if you're poor you don't pay taxes, if you work your butt of trying to make ends meet, you just got hit with another big debt that you didn't earn. Our Government, which is "by the people and for the people," has known this was coming since before JFK was in office. The average working family is being forced to pay for the mistakes made by the government and by big business. No one has ever offered to bail me out of the mistakes I have made in the past. I made them and I have had to pay the price. By passing this debt, about 1 000000000000.00, thats what a trillion looks like, off to the tax payers, THE GOVERNMENT HAS SIGNED THE DEATH CERTIFICATE ON THE MIDDLE CLASS. The middle class has been shrinking under the load of the government shortfall for a while now, The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. You will be one or the other because the middle class is not going to be there.
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Showing 1 of 2 pages (54 Comments)The bailout does not offer a payback of the funds, they will say it does or say they are working on a plan but the truth of the matter is this. The United States is the greatest debtor nation in the world. Before today we, as a country, have 90 trillion dollars of liability. The baby boomer population has reached it peak with 79 million people going in to retirement in the next ten years, all expecting to receive a check from the government. It won't be there.. The people that were born between 1946 and 1964 are fully vested in Social Security. We are the first generation that has paid this tax to the government our enrire working lives, only to find out that our government shouldn't have been trusted. If I ran a business this way, I would end up in prison for FRAUD, EMBEZELLMENT, and just outright theft.
We are not a Democracey, we are a Republic. We are supposed to be represented by an elected official that takes our combined voices to congress and the White House. When was the last time any one from the goverenment on any level ask you what you thought? Did you get to vote on wheather or not we went to Iraq, what about Viet Nam? Do you have a Lobbiest running around having meetings with congress people to gain support for what you want? I don't feel that anyone in Washington cares about me as a person or a citizen. Unless they need my vote, I don't exist except as a taxpayer ID number. I hope you have a plan that will allow you to have the future you desire, I hope my plan works....