U.S. Lawmakers from California are weighing in on behalf of distressed homeowners, telling Ally Financial, Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo to get in the game and fully participate in a new program designed to help California homeowners avoid foreclosure.

Democratic Members of Congress from California are telling major national mortgage servicers to fully participate in the Keep Your Home California Program, an ambitious effort by the California Housing Finance Agency (CalHFA). The $2 billion federally funded program to help homeowners in California is already underway, but CalHFA is still working to secure the full cooperation of major national mortgage servicers like Ally Financial, Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, and Wells Fargo.

The lawmakers wrote the mortgage servicers encouraging them to “make every best faith effort to reach agreement with CalHFA to participate in each facet of this program, especially the principal reduction program, in order to assist the ongoing effort to stabilize California’s housing market.”  The principal reduction program is critical for homeowners whose mortgages are “underwater”—where the homeowner owes more on their mortgage than the home is worth.  This is especially important for the East Bay area, where more than half of homes with mortgages are underwater in many communities.

The letter also noted that the members of Congress will be “watching closely to ensure that all parties are moving forward in a productive way to make this program a success.”

Rep. George Miller has previously written to CalHFA requesting updates on the program.

The following members of the California delegation cosigned the letter: Reps. George Miller, Baca, Becerra, Berman, Capps, Cardoza, Chu, Susan Davis, Eshoo, Filner, Garamendi, Harman, Honda, B. Lee, Lofgren, Matsui, Roybal-Allard, Li. Sanchez, Lo. Sanchez, Schiff, Speier, Stark, Thompson, Waters, Waxman, Woolsey.

A copy of the letter to Citi is here. Identical copies were sent to the other mortgage servicers.

Stay tuned on facebook.com/repgeorgemiller and twitter.com/askgeorge as these lawmakers continue their effort to help California homeowners keep their homes.