Two senior Democratic lawmakers said on Tuesday they were considering legislation to restrict risky mortgage lending practices and protect borrowers after news that foreclosures in the U.S. subprime mortgage sector were rising. Lawmakers joined U.S. banking regulators and federal prosecutors in focusing on the widening problems in the subprime lending industry that provides mortgages to consumers with weak credit.

n the U.S. Senate, Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd (news, bio, voting record) said he may offer a bill to protect consumers who were “victimized” by subprime mortgages they can no longer afford. “What I’m worried about is we may have as many as two million foreclosures in the next 18 months for mortgages written after 1998. And we may have to do something to protect these homeowners that could otherwise lose everything,” Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, told Reuters. “It’s potentially $164 billion at stake.” On the other side of Capitol Hill, the chairman of the U.S. House Financial Services Committee said he planned legislation that would restrict overly risky mortgages now that the subprime market is in turmoil.

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