It's been big news, the cessation of foreclosure activity by three major lenders in 23 states.  GMAC, JP Morgan Chase, and Bank of America are all halting foreclosures in the 23 judicial foreclosure states, those requiring court approval of the process.  The problem is in affidavits that state the documents proving the debt and the amount owed have been notarized and state that the signer had personally viewed the relevant mortgage documents.  What's been found though is that a great many of these affidavits were signed with little or no review of the documents.  In an interesting, and possibly alarming, turn of events, the Senate acted on a bill that had been languishing for months, and passed it with lightning speed and no debate. The law, The Interstate Recognition of Notarizations Act, requires all federal and state courts to recognize notarizations in other states. This was viewed by many consumer advocates to be a way out for these banks in many of their foreclosures open to dispute. The timing of this bill’s movement, as well as the speed and method of passage was questioned. Some consumer advocates believe that it was an attempt to sidestep this new crisis, or at least lessen its impact.  A quote: "After languishing for months in the Senate Judiciary Committee, the bill passed the Senate with lightning speed and with hardly any public awareness of the bill's existence on September 27, the day before the Senate recessed for midterm election campaign.  "Then, just hours after this news spread around the Web, President Obama wouldn't sign the bill, sending it back to Congress for  more study of how it would affect the foreclosure crisis.