"We have to move quickly," Reed said, because when homes in cities are empty for weeks or even days, "they're stripped, the siding is ripped off, the copper piping is taken out. Unless there is someone to go in there and keep it in use or to board it up and protect it, then these homes are going to be lost, not just temporarily, but for a longer term as we have to repair the destruction."

Senate Republicans said they would allow legislation to stem housing foreclosures to advance, ending a standoff over the measure, Bloomberg News reported.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said after discussions with Majority Leader Harry Reid that his party would stop blocking the proposal while lawmakers try to resolve remaining disagreements.

“The goal is to do something about housing,” Reid, a Nevada Democrat, said on the Senate floor. “The time has come for us to start legislating and stop talking about the need to legislate.”

The announcement comes after weeks of Republican objections to the Democrats’ plan to allow judges to alter mortgage terms in bankruptcy court. Republicans said that would prompt mortgage lenders to recover losses in court through higher interest rates on other borrowers.
McConnell said allowing the legislation to advance would give Republicans and Democrats a chance to negotiate the details of the measure.

Republicans raised the possibility of backing more narrowly drawn changes in bankruptcy laws. Senator John Ensign, a Nevada Republican, said “everything should be on the table” and “maybe there’s certain things along that edges that we might be able to negotiate.”

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, meanwhile, said a Republican plan to prop up housing prices by offering a temporary $15,000 tax credit for those who buy foreclosed properties has “some value” and ought to be “possibly” included in any foreclosure-relief legislation.

To listen to clips, go to http://demradio.senate.gov/actualities/reed/reed080401.mp3.