The Volokh Conspiracy - Congress Is Making It Harder to Obtain or Refinance a Mortgage.— [Jim Lindgren, December 12, 2007 at 8:45pm] Trackbacks For years, Congress had been pushing lenders to lend vigorously in poor neighborhoods and to avoid redlining. This effort worked—only too well.If you're a lender, you get blamed for racism either way.Now Congress has discovered "predatory lending."