The Senate Judiciary Committee plans to hold a hearing Tuesday on foreclosure mediation efforts.
The hearing, to be chaired by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., is meant to highlight a bill he introduced last week to let bankruptcy courts urge servicers to discuss alternatives to foreclosure with troubled homeowners.
The bill is different from previous efforts to let bankruptcy judges write off mortgage debt. Instead of requiring a particular outcome, the legislation would only allow judges to run pre-trial foreclosure mediation programs, encouraging negotiations between servicers and borrowers.
Bankruptcy judges in Rhode Island and others states have initiated such programs in the face of opposition from banks.
