Corporation was passed by the Senate on Wednesday.

Sen. Jerome Dill (UBP) said The Bermuda Housing Amendment Act 1993 was "very simple and straightforward.'' The Housing Corporation had access to a $50-million line of credit with J.P.

Morgan at "a very attractive interest rate,'' but has only needed to use about $36 million of the available funds, Sen. Dill said.

"Government should be able to take advantage of those funds'' for its capital projects.

The amendment would allow Housing Corporation funds to be invested in any way the Minister approved.

While there had been attempts to relate the Act to the Housing Corporation's foreclosures on delinquent mortgages, "the two are totally and wholly unrelated''.

"The properties which the Bermuda Housing Corporation proposes to foreclose on are properties in respect of which the mortgagors have been in arrears for in excess of four years. It is obviously the absolute last resort.'' Senate Opposition Leader Alex Scott said the Bermuda Sun reported the mortgates were "more than a year'' in arrears, not four years.

The Housing Corporation, which the Progressive Labour Party had pushed for, was intended to help people with low incomes, he said. But the United Bermuda Party Government had pushed it toward "market values.'' That was why so many people were in arrears.

The situation at the Housing Corporation showed Government had not planned for the recession, as Finance Minister the Hon. David Saul insisted, he said. And if Government was supposed to have such a good credit rating, why could it not approach J.P. Morgan directly and get the same low interest rate? In a meeting with the PLP, Judge Stephen Tumim said Government was broke, and it appeared that was the case, Sen. Scott said.

Sen. Wendell Hollis (UBP) said Sen. Scott showed "a fundamental misunderstanding of how international money lending takes place''.

Rates are fixed on a time frame basis, and the Bermuda Housing Corporation negotiated its loan in 1986. "That was the rate then, not now,'' he said.

Government Senate Leader the Hon. Michael Winfield said Government was "in an extremely good financial position,'' and he doubted Judge Tumim suggested the Country was broke.

"This Country is not broke,'' Sen. Winfield said. "Particularly at a time of fiscal restraint it is incumbent upon a responsible Government that it must curb its expenses wherever possible.'' The Act passed without objection.