Congress sent President Obama a $105.9 billion wartime spending bill yesterday that included $45 million for the Justice Department to combat mortgage fraud.
The money approved yesterday is the latest in a series of steps taken by Congress this year to fight mortgage fraud. Obama signed into law this March the Omnibus Appropriations Act, which gave the FBI $10 million to hire more agents for mortgage fraud investigations. Last month, the president signed into law the Fraud and Recovery Act, which provided the Justice Department with $245 million to employ more prosecutors and agents to handle fraud cases.
“Today Congress has taken another big step forward by approving these funds,” Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), chair of the Senate Appropriations Commerce, Justice and science subcommittee, said in a statement yesterday. “No more scamming and scheming. No more preying on hardworking American families with shady lending practices. If you break the law, you will suffer the consequences.”
The wartime spending bill passed yesterday was missing a few key provisions, however. For weeks, Congress fought over funding for closing Guantanamo Bay detention facility and a ban on U.S. government photos that show prisoner abuse. The bill that went to Obama’s desk yesterday did not provide funds for shuttering Guantanamo until the president creates a plan for transferring the detainees. It also did not have a ban on releasing abuse pictures after the Senate passed legislation prohibiting the public release of the photos.
The Associated Press article on the approval of the wartime spending bill is here.
