NEW YORK (AP) — Mortgage fraud has become so pervasive and damaging to the limping economy that the federal government should give local prosecutors hundreds of millions of dollars to fight it, Sen. Charles Schumer and New York City district attorneys say.

The New York Democrat, who won an $875,000 earmark to establish a mortgage fraud unit at the Brooklyn DA's office, is introducing legislation Monday to authorize $100 million in grants every year for local prosecutors across the country to do the same.

Mortgage fraud and deed theft often is a local matter that costs homeowners up to $6 billion annually, Schumer said, citing FBI statistics.

Prosecutors, homeowner advocacy groups, state agencies and homeowners themselves have had trouble investigating and prosecuting those crimes because of insufficient staff and funding, Schumer said in prepared remarks.

The idea stems from an earmark Schumer successfully attached to a massive appropriations bill that enabled the Brooklyn DA's office to hire prosecutors to investigate mortgage fraud. Schumer's bill, which has not been endorsed by Senate Democratic leaders, would set aside $100 million in grants each fiscal year from 2010 through 2013.

Local prosecutors would compete for the grants, which the attorney general would issue.