Foreclosure Troubles Threatening as the Stimulus Programme of the Federal Government
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In Oregon, the new House leader (Democrat) Tina Kotek said she is keen to see that the focus is on foreclosures and other small business ventures. She plans, in the future, to place these among her top priorities.
Speaking to the Associated Press she said, “Banks don’t want us touching those things, and we are going to have a conversation about that in February. Those two things, capital for business and people in foreclosure, are going to help the middle class”.
Kotek became the party leader when Republican Dave Hunt was ousted by the Democrats – it being a rare shake up in the middle of the term. For the first official business session since Kotek took over the reins, democratic legislators will return to Salem in order to conduct meetings. Committee meetings will be held to talk about suggested changes to the law of the state but no work on specific bills will be taken up as of yet.
The Democrats with Kotek had attempted to pass new bills that would mandate the banks to take care of foreclosed houses as well as slow down the foreclosure process for troubled homeowners, among other new regulations. But without support from the GOP, the bills languished.
The two parties are sharing power in the House after voting showed that 30 members had been elected from each side. The leaders of the parties came to an agreement that would require the members of each of the parties to sign off on any of the bills prior to voting.
Apart from foreclosure and other financial issues, Kotek has mentioned she is willing to hold talks with others in her party about focusing on priorities for a legislative session of 35 days that will kick off next February. She is hopeful that discussions on health insurance and the renovation of the Medicaid system will go smoothly. However, these discussions will take up much of the legislators’ time. They also need to make decisions about what direction the federal budget should take.
Forty four year old Kotek was elected in 2007 to the Legislature after having been engaged as a lobbyist pushing for reforms in the fields of social justice, education and social security net plans. She openly claims to be gay. She said, “I always try to put our most low-income families and kids first”.
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