NACBA Director John Rao testified recently at a field hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and the Courts, which was held in Providence, RI. Subcommittee chair U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse held the meeting to discuss the public’s experience with obtaining mortgage modifications. Witnesses testified that they lacked leverage in the negotiating process.John explained to the subcommittee that “What is lacking in the system is not a carrot; what is lacking is a stick.” John urged support for NACBA’s judicial mortgage modification language, and explained that passage of judicial mortgage modification years ago for family farms prompted a dramatic rise in the number of cases in which banks renegotiated farm mortgages without the farmers ever having to file bankruptcy.