LEGISLATIVE RESOLUTION memorializing the United States Congress to take
emergency action to protect homeowners and banks, and to enact a Home-
owners and Banks Protection Act

WHEREAS, The onrushing financial crisis involving home mortgages, debt
instruments of all types and the banking system of the United States
threatens to set off an economic collapse worse than the Great
Depression of the 1930s; and
WHEREAS, Millions of Americans are faced with foreclosures and loss of
their homes over the coming months; and
WHEREAS, The hedge funds which spread this financial collapse among
markets worldwide, by dominating speculation in all those markets, are
now going bankrupt and demanding government bailout of their securities
and derivatives, and the nominal value of the derivatives based on mort-
gages alone is the size of the combined GDP of the nations of the world;
and
WHEREAS, This financial crisis threatens the integrity of both Federal
and State chartered banks, as typified by the run on deposits of Coun-
trywide Financial Corporation in California on August 16, 2008, which
could wipe out the life savings of too many American people and dras-
tically undermine the economic stability of our states and cities; and
WHEREAS, Under similar circumstances in the 1930s, President Franklin
D. Roosevelt successfully intervened to protect banks and homeowners,
addressing Congress with a "declaration of national policy" on April 13,
1933, which stated "that the broad interests of the Nation require that
special safeguards should be thrown around home ownership as a guarantee
of social and economic stability, and that to protect homeowners from
inequitable enforced liquidation in a time of general distress is a
proper concern of the Government"; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That the Congress of the United States be and hereby is
respectfully memorialized by this Legislative Body to take emergency
action to protect homeowners and banks by enacting a Homeowners and
Banks Protection Act specifically to:
establish a federal agency to place Federal and State chartered banks
under protection, freezing all existing home mortgages for a period of
time, adjusting mortgage values to fair prices, restructuring existing
mortgages at appropriate interest rates and having banks write off spec-
ulative debt obligations of mortgage-backed securities, financial deriv-
atives and other forms of financial pyramid schemes that have brought
the banking system to the point of bankruptcy;
declare a moratorium on all home foreclosures for the duration of the
transitional period, allowing families to retain their homes; monthly
payments, the equivalent of "rental payments," shall be made to desig-
nated banks, which can use the funds as collateral for normal lending
practices, thus recaptilazing the banking system; these affordable
monthly payments will be factored into new mortgages, reflecting the
orderly deflating of the housing bubble, the establishment of appropri-
ate property valuations and reduced fixed mortgage interest rates;
while this may take several years to achieve, in the interim period no
homeowner shall be evicted from his or her property, and the Federal and
State chartered banks shall be protected so that they can resume their
traditional functions, serving local communities and facilitating credit
for investment in productive entities; and
authorize governors of several states to assume the administrative
responsibilities for implementing the program, including the "rental"
assessments to designated banks, with the Federal Government providing

the necessary credits and guarantees to assure the successful transi-
tion; and be it further
RESOLVED, That copies of this Resolution, suitably engrossed, be tran-
smitted to the President of the Senate of the United States, the Speaker
of the House of Representatives, and to each member of the Congress of
the United States from the State of New York.