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12 Oct, 2010 23:41

Lobbyists drive legislation while Congress remains asleep

More than two years into the financial crisis and the frenzy of foreclosures that followed it, many Americans understandably have directed their anger at Wall Street.

Yet Washington’s influential K Street is also to blame. It’s the home of the US’s most powerful lobbyists and it forms part of the revolving door between government and big banks and corporations.

The controversial Interstate Notarization Act of 2010 quietly and unanimously passed the Senate with little public debate—although it was certainly discussed behind the closed doors of K Street lobbying firms. The bill would have bailed out big banks and corporations while allowing foreclosures to continue, even when the legitimacy of those foreclosures have been disputed because of fraudulent or incorrect notarizations.

Homeowners facing foreclosure also denounced K Street lobbyists and the damage they have done to American families in a protest on May 17, 2010, drawing thousands to the streets for a “sit-in on K Street.”

Sawsan Zaky, a foreclosure attorney with Cabanillas & Associates, P.C. in New York City said it is scary that such a bill could pass both the US House and Senate so quickly.

Thankfully President Obama really understands what the bill meant and the implications that it would have had on homeowners,” said Zaky.

She said the bill could have devastated the foreclosure crisis even more than it has already, eliding to large scale future implications on the market.

In the midst of such a major foreclosure crisis when people are losing their homes left and right you have a bill that could devastate that even more than the occurrence already is,” she added. “The fact that banks are so, the lobby is so strong in favor of banks despite the fact that homeowners are losing their homes everyday is really scary.”

Zaky explained that Americans blame bankers, Wall Street and the government for the ongoing crisis; citing faulty practices, including those which came to light under the foreclosure-gate scandal, and the failure of the government to regulate the industry properly.

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