Secretary of Housing & Urban Development Shaun Donovan

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Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan briefing reporters at the White House in Washington, Feb. 1, 2012. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Hour 1

In February, the nation’s top mortgage lenders signed a $26 billion mortgage fraud settlement, including $5 billion in cash relief for faulty and sometimes fraudulent documentation of mortgages that cost underwater homeowners untold billions. At the heart of those negotiations was SHAUN DONOVAN, President Obama’s Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Department. With about 11 million homeowners “underwater” on their mortgages, and the nation’s housing and real estate markets still struggling, Donovan’s work is key to the economic prospects for the nation and its millions of struggling homeowners and renters. Donovan is in Philadelphia giving a keynote speech at a national community development conference, Reinventing Older Communities: Building Resilient Cities,” hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s Community Development Studies and Education Department, and he’ll join Marty in studio for today’s Radio Times. He also happens to be the first Obama administration cabinet member to come out publicly in support of marriage equality, something the President did himself yesterday.

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[audio: 051012_100630.mp3]

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