Eliminate Fingerprint Registry in Housing Bill, Says Bob Barr

“The housing bail-out should be defeated for many reasons,” says Bob Barr, the Libertarian Party candidate for president. “It forces responsible renters, homeowners, and taxpayers to bail out irresponsible investors, lenders, and buyers. The legislation also is tainted by a conflict of interest, since Sen. Christopher Dodd, who wrote the bill, has received a cut rate mortgage from one of the companies which will benefit from the congressionally-mandated but taxpayer-funded bailout.”

As if that was not enough, notes Barr, the legislation, currently pending on the Senate floor, “creates a fingerprint registry for potentially thousands of employees in the real estate and mortgage industries.” The bill technically covers “loan originators,” but defines the term broadly enough to cover even clerical workers.

“If this provision is approved, the federal government will create a permanent database of thousands of Americans never suspected of misconduct, let alone of committing a crime,” explains Barr. “People now constantly find their privacy and liberties under assault by government. We must not permit Congress to engage in another end run around the Constitution when we aren’t looking.”

Moreover, the fingerprint registry is no answer to the housing crisis. “Rather than treat an entire industry as criminal, the U.S. Senate would do more to prevent a recurrence of mortgage fraud by voting against Sen. Dodd’s irresponsible bail-out plan,” says Barr. If we turn capitalism “into a no-lose game for those who want to gamble with other people’s money, there will be more financial crises and more bail-outs. It is time for Congress to just say no to more welfare for the well-connected.”

Barr represented the 7th District of Georgia in the U. S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 2003, where he served as a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, as Vice-Chairman of the Government Reform Committee, and as a member of the Committee on Financial Services. Prior to his congressional career, Barr was appointed by President Reagan to serve as the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, and also served as an official with the CIA.

Since leaving Congress, Barr has been practicing law and has teamed up with groups ranging from the American Civil Liberties Union to the American Conservative Union to actively advocate every American citizens’ right to privacy and other civil liberties guaranteed in the Bill of Rights. Along with this, Bob is committed to helping elect leaders who will strive for smaller government, lower taxes and abundant individual freedom.

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