Sen. Dick Durbin’s foreclosure prevention bill has faced its share of congressional hurdles, having been voted down in the Senate on three separate occasions and shelved by President Obama and the House Democratic leadership during the stimulus negotiations. But this week, Democratic lawmakers are again pushing a bill that would allow bankruptcy judges to revise the terms of unaffordable mortgages. The Hill has the scoop:

House Democrats unveiled a wide-ranging bill on Monday evening to prop up the housing market and most contentiously, empower bankruptcy judges to modify mortgages. [...]

House Democratic leaders may bring the bill to the floor for a vote on Thursday. The bill is sponsored by House Judiciary Committee chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) and House Financial Services Committee chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.).

The specifics of the bill are still in question. While the White House signaled its support for the measure last week, supporters are worried that Obama wants to place restrictions on the proposal that could blunt its impact. These include limiting rewrites to mortgages established in “the past few years” and capping the value of the loans eligible. “It will curb the number of people who can use [the bankruptcy court],” Katie Porter, a University of Iowa law professor, told the Washington Post, “and probably not in a sensible way.”

Republicans and the financial services industry strongly oppose the reform because they fear it could drive up mortgage rates and increase lender losses. But if Congress is serious about keeping people in their homes, no measure seems as substantive; indeed, Credit Suisse recently estimated that the simple change could reduce foreclosures by 20 percent.