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Obama says to unveil housing plan within 2 months

WASHINGTON
Wed Jan 7, 2009 7:09pm EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Barack Obama said on Wednesday he planned to unveil a plan to stem the mounting tide of home foreclosures in the next month or two.

Barack Obama

"Dealing with this foreclosure crisis is something that we've got to do," Obama said in an interview with CNBC.

"I expect to unveil plans to prevent foreclosures in consultation with (Rep.) Barney Frank and (Sen.) Chris Dodd, who've done some very good work on this, sometime in the next month or two," he added, referring to the chairmen of the congressional committees that oversee banking.

Obama also had warm words for Federal Deposit Insurance Corp Chairman Sheila Bair, who he said "had the sense of urgency about the problem that I want to see."

Asked whether he would tap former Time Warner Inc Chairman Richard Parsons to be U.S. commerce secretary, Obama declined to answer, although he called Parsons "a great guy" and good friend.

(Reporting by Tim Ahmann; Editing by Leslie Adler)



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