Washington, DC– Rep. Todd Rokita (R-IN) today completed a series of votes on two bills that together will slash $1.075 billion from the federal budget. The first bill, The FHA Refinance Program Termination Act (H.R. 830), stops the government from spending TARP money on an ineffective Housing and Urban Development (HUD) program. The program in question exists on $8 billion in TARP funds but has only refinanced 44 of the 500,000 loans it was intended for. TARP is a program in which the government borrowed billions of dollars from American taxpayers to bail out the financial sector.

The second bill, the Emergency Homeowner Relief Program Termination Act (H.R. 836), ends another wasteful and unsuccessful government program which originally existed to provide loans or credit advances to unemployed borrowers who couldn’t pay their mortgages. However, the program forced taxpayers to lose 98 cents on every dollar spent – adding more debt to the pile and worsening the situation for struggling homeowners.

Rokita released the following statement:

“These votes are a huge success for taxpayers and another step in the right direction. Taxpayers have received virtually nothing in return for the billions shelled out for these ineffective, unworkable programs. Instead of spending money we don’t have on programs that don’t work, we should now focus on creating jobs to ensure struggling homeowners can get back on their feet again without being saddled by more federal debt.”

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