Mortgage "Cram Down"

According to Friday's (March 5, 2009) Wall Street Journal, the house has passed the "cram down" legislation. This legislation would allow homeowners in financial difficulty to ask bankruptcy judges for relief from their mortgages.

Reqirements - Homeowners must make systematic and verifieable attempts to modify their mortgage before resorting to bankruptcy. Homeowners must be able to certify that they provided extensive information on their finances to the bank holding their loan.

What investor is going to risk a loan defaulting?

How high will rates have to go to compensate for the risk that a judge may modify the mortgage note?

What is the definition of relief?

According to Miriam Webster Dictionary

1: a payment made by a male feudal tenant to his lord on succeeding to an inherited estate
2 a: removal or lightening of something oppressive, painful, or distressing
b: welfare
2a c: military assistance to an endangered post or force
d: means of breaking or avoiding monotony or boredom : diversion
3: release from a post or from the performance of duty
4: one that takes the place of another on duty
5: legal remedy or redress6 [French, from Middle French, from Italian rilievo relievo]
a: a mode of sculpture in which forms and figures are distinguished from a surrounding plane surface
b: sculpture or a sculptural form executed in this mode
c: projecting detail, ornament, or figures
7 a: sharpness of outline due to contrast
b: the state of being distinguished by contrast
8: the elevations or inequalities of a land surface
9: the pitching done by a relief pitcher

I guess definition 2a and b might apply - 2 a: removal or lightening of something oppressive, painful, or distressing
b: welfare
but definition 3 is interesting also release from the performance of duty
then again definition 5 legal remedy or redress may fit

None of these say what the relief may be -
Reduction of the mortgage balance
Extension of the term of the mortgage
Lowering of the rate
A combination of all of the above

Seems to be no guideline or definition of relief, except from Miriam Webster.

Looks like the mortgage market will get tighter for another reason.