This was a vote on final passage of legislation eliminating the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP), which provided state and local governments and non-profit organizations with funding to redevelop or demolish foreclosed homes.

Rep. Steve Pearce (R-NM) urged support for the bill: “…The NSP simply acts as a taxpayer bailout for risky lenders, servicers and real estate speculators who bet on the housing market and now can't sell their properties. It has become an even bigger example of those people who believe that the government is the solution to the problems. Government is not the solution to the problem; government is the problem.”

Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL) also supported the measure: “What does this program do? Does it prevent foreclosures? No. It encourages foreclosures. It allows nonprofits, community organizations, and cities and counties to buy foreclosed properties. In other words, to create a market for foreclosed properties.”

Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-NY) urged opposition to the bill: “The Neighborhood Stabilization Program will help rehabilitate over 600 properties in New York City alone, but this is not just an issue for New York. This is a national problem. It was created by a decade of overheated mortgage lending and excess on Wall Street. It makes sense that our cities should have a national response. But contrary to common sense, the bill we consider today would abandon our cities and towns and force them to deal with this issue on their own.”

Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA) also opposed the bill: “The surrounding communities of homeowners who are trying to stay in their homes are having, first of all, their property values lowered because of the density of abandoned properties in their neighborhoods. This Neighborhood Stabilization Program provides the only opportunity for us to address that crisis. We are trying to put a floor under the housing market in this country--some of us are--and this is one program that allows us to do that.”

The House passed this bill by a vote of 242-182. Voting “yea were 237 Republicans and 5 Democrats. 180 Democrats and 2 Republicans voted “nay.” As a result, the House passed legislation eliminating the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP), which provided state and local governments and non-profit organizations with funding to redevelop or demolish foreclosed homes. Since the Senate had not acted on this bill, however, the NSP continued to operate.