November 29, 2007 (LPAC)--In an extraordinary hearing today of the Intergovernmental Affairs Committee of the Pennsylvania state legislature, testimony was heard on HR 418, which calls for the U.S. Congress to enact the Homeowners and Bank Protection Act. As an indication of the seriousness of the crisis addressed by the proposed legislation, even though the legislature is not currently in session, a total of approximately one dozen legislators and 50-60 people attended the hearing. The hearing was a critical milestone in a nationwide mobilization on a local and statewide level to get the U.S. Congress take its Constitutional responsibilities seriously and to erect a firewall to protect homeowners and banks before it is too late.

After brief welcoming remarks by the Republican (minority) co-chair of the Committee, the first speaker was State Representative Harold James, the sponsor of the resolution. James explained why he had introduced the resolution, the concept of which, he said, was developed by Lyndon LaRouche. During the course of his testimony, James reported on the large number of city councils in the state of Pennsylvania which have already passed resolutions in support of HR 418, including Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. In fact, James quoted from a letter from the President of the Philadelphia City Council endorsing the HBPA, after the Philadelphia City Council had unanimously endorsed the resolution earlier this morning.

The next speaker was the Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Banking, Steve Kaplan, who on the one hand accurately described the extent of the crisis in the state, but on the other hand revealed the smallness of the approaches available merely on a statewide basis, mentioning hot lines, "plain language" summaries of mortgages, etc..

This set the stage for the testimony of EIR's Paul Gallagher, who stressed that we are not facing a mortgage crisis, but rather the collapse of the global financial system. Gallagher's testimony documented the hundreds of billions of dollars which have already had to be written off by the banks, the hundreds of billions of dollars which have already been pumped into the system by the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank to no avail, and the horror of what is in store for homeowners and banks unless the firewall of the HBPA is immediately implemented.

Richard Freeman, also from EIR, then testified on the Constitutional principle of the General Welfare and identified the actions taken by Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1930s as the model for what is being proposed today in LaRouche's HBPA. Freeman stressed LaRouche's intention is to have state houses all over the country push congress to enact the HBPA immediately.

The next speaker was Brian Hudson, Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Housing and Finance Agency claimed that with $5 million provided by Citi-Bank and with $150 million which the state plans to raise in bonds, the crisis can be managed. However, when he was asked how many families they would be able to help, his answer was only 250 to 300 families. One of the legislators on the panel then asked him: "Didn't you just say there are 12,000 to 15,000 delinquent mortgages?"

Harrisburg City Councilwoman Linda Thompson, who spoke next, stated for the record that she supports the HBPA, 100%. In addition to being a city councilwoman, she works with a group called LOVESHIP, which counsels those who have been foreclosed upon. But, as she reported, over the last 3 months, the number of foreclosures in Harrisburg has quadrupled, to the point that LOVESHIP is overwhelmed and cannot even handle the number of people presently requiring counseling.

The final speaker was Judge Jeffrey Sprecher of the Berks County Court of Common Pleas, who had ordered a moratorium on foreclosures in a case involving 800 families in central Pennsylvania, a which had been brought before him. The Judge stated that he fully supports the HBPA. He made the point that foreclosures don't benefit anyone, not the homeowners or the banks, and are a huge cost to the tax payers.

At the end of the hearing, Rep. Curtis Thomas, who is the chairman of the committee, reported to all assembled that "we're going to move this bill."