WASHINGTON - Congress is looking at reforms to risky home lending practices, although a House subcommittee hearing on Tuesday suggests lawmakers are still sorting out the complexities of the mortgage market and wondering whether reforms will be helpful.

With the number of foreclosures nationally jumping 47 percent in March from a year ago, lawmakers are weighing whether new lending rules are needed or whether the market is already self-correcting.

Last week, Sens. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.; Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio; and Bob Casey, D-Pa., introduced a bill that would mandate tougher federal standards for mortgage lenders, even as Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., was emphasizing that increased regulatory oversight and voluntary reforms by lenders are preferable to legislation.

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Democrat Charles Schumer introduces proposals to tame the ‘Wild West’ of sub-prime lending.

WASHINGTON — In a bid to stop a wave of foreclosures, Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Thursday urged Congress to approve $300 million for counseling and outreach efforts to help beleaguered borrowers hold onto their homes through refinancing deals and other financial strategies that would require cooperation from private lenders.

Schumer also proposed legislation to hold mortgage brokers and independent, non-bank lenders such as Ameriquest Mortgage Co. legally responsible for making loans that borrowers can understand and can afford.

The separate proposals represent the first legislative attempts to address the problem of rising foreclosures, a situation that has worsened nationwide during the last year. In many cases, borrowers were enticed by artificially low entry costs. The loans, often marketed by brokers and independent lenders, eventually soared in cost.

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Across the country, thousands of people are losing their homes because payments on their subprime loans have increased to the point that they can’t afford the loans.

But in Massachusetts, where foreclosure filings have nearly doubled during the past year, the governor is asking lenders to give homeowners more time.

The move follows a recent protest at Gov. Deval Patrick’s office by homeowners who said their loan officers and mortgage brokers lied to them about the interest rates they would pay on their subprime loans.

“I have a 4-year-old son. I work hard. I’m a single parent. I have a good job. I’m doing what I’m supposed to do. I cry every night because I don’t know what’s going to happen the next day,” said protester Raymona Bowen, who stood to lose her home in a matter of days.

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