As we gather for NAFCU's 2009 Congressional Caucus, it seems that many ghosts of legislative reforms past are coming back to haunt us.

What began with the subprime crisis of last year has evolved into a full-fledged financial crisis that has prompted renewed interest in Congress for regulatory reform and tougher consumer protections.

Earlier this year, NAFCU worked diligently to defend our industry when cram-downs were considered as part of mortgage reform. The House version of the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act of 2009 (H.R. 1106) that passed on March 5 would have provided bankruptcy judges with the authority to unilaterally modify mortgage loan terms for consumers in bankruptcy proceedings. Continuing to offer a compromise of applying cram-downs to only subprime loans, NAFCU took the leadership in working to ensure that broad mortgage cram-down authority would not be in the bill introduced in the Senate. Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., however, pushed for an amendment that would have included cram-down language.