In 2003, House Finance Committee Pledged To Examine Housing Market

When it developed its plan of action for the 108th Congress (2003-2004), the House Financial Services committee said it would "examine the national and regional incidents of fraud in the housing and mortgage industry, its impact on the housing market and the affordability of mortgages, the response of federal and state regulators, private financial institutions, and government sponsored enterprises, and the use of appraisals in this type of fraud."

That call to action, by the way, was initiated at the request of Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-PA) and accepted by Chairman Michael Oxley (R-OH).

However, as we know, the 108th Congress did not pass any legislation dealing with government sponsored enterprises, despite a July 2003 accounting scandal involving Freddie Mac.

Moreover, the Republican-controlled Congress did nothing although Oxley and Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL), chair of the Senate Banking Committee, pledged to do so after President Bush called for reportedly "the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis."

See who was in charge, who sat on those committees in 2003-2004. If one of those men or women is your legislators, call them and ask them what efforts they made to deal with this situation five years ago, before it mushroomed into today's global economic crisis.