House Leaders Gear Up for Vote on FHA Refi Program Fix

House leaders are preparing to vote on a housing bill next week that will fix a Federal Housing Administration refinancing program for underwater borrowers and likely make the $250,000 deposit insurance coverage permanent. However, the bill is not expected to include a controversial cramdown provision that would hold up final passage by the Senate. House majority leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., told a bankers meeting that House and Senate bank committee chairmen "have pretty much reached agreement that the $250,000 is going to be made permanent." Congress temporarily raised the deposit insurance limit from $100,000 to $250,000 last fall. "There are a lot of good things in this bill," Rep Hoyer told MortgageWire after speaking at an Independent Community Bankers of America event. But Rep. Hoyer said Senate Democratic leaders stressed that they can't get a cramdown provision through the Senate. The House passed a cramdown provision that would allow bankruptcy judges to modify mortgages. But the Senate decisively rejected cramdowns in approving its version of the housing bill.