And the finance Agency Director mel watt. On the status of the Housing Finance system, fannie mae and freddie mac have been in conservatorship for close to 9 years. In september of 2008, hank paulson famously described the conservatorships as a timeout. Fannie and freddie along with fha continue to dominate the Mortgage Market. 70 of the mortgages are backed by the federal government. Fannie and freddie currently earning profits at the Housing Market experiences a downturn, taxpayers could be on the hook for billions of dollars. The status quo is not a viable option. The Housing Finance system dependent on two governmentsponsored enterprises and perpetual conservatorship is not a sustainable solution. Taxpayers today bear too much risk and the government plays too bigger role in the Mortgage Market. A number of groups release proposals for reform in recent months including the mba, i cba, milliken institute, several coauthors writing jointly for the urban institute and many others. The
System. Fannie mae and freddie mac have been in conservatorship for close to nine years. In september 2008, then treasury secretary hank paulson famously described the conservatorships as a timeout. Today, fannie and freddie along with fha continue to dominate the Mortgage Market. Approximately 70 of the mortgages are backed by the federal government. While fannie and freddie are currently earning profits, if the Housing Market experiences a downturn, taxpayers could again be on the hook for billions of dollars. The status quo is not a viable option. The Housing Finance system depends on two Government Sponsored Enterprises and perpetual conservatorship is not a sustainable solution. Taxpayers today bear too much risk and the government plays too big a role in the Mortgage Market. A number of groups have released proposals for reform in recent months. Including the mba, the icba, the milken institute, several coauthors writing jointly for the urban institute, and many others. The commi
Ms. Waters. After 2007, i think that overleveraged issue sort of prove the point. And looking at the headlines the headlines read government keeps pushing mortgage guarantees as risk index rises. Heres another headline. Fhfa orders of gses to start supporting Affordable Housing trust fund. Surprisingly the year is not 2005. Its 2015. And so we find the fha today engaged in this race with fannie and freddie to see who can more swiftly cracked up the private sector, who cant assume more risk on behalf of the american taxpayer. I would just point out this is kind of a frightening race because in my view we have seen it before. The fhfa has joined sort of a moral hazard problem here. And in december you announced the gses should begin to put more money into the coffers of Housing Advocacy groups through the Housing Trust fund established under the housing and economic recovery act. And you made this move despite the fact that fannie and freddie have yet to repay a lot of the money due to t
Any act, the result of which that the thing you object to by virtue of submitting your virtue on a piece of paper that triggers the government that results in the provision of the coverage that you object to and it will will be this act. How will that be and all you have to do is push a button, lets say, that will bring it into the same play that brought in to play by your objection and if you press that, it is a different act in your pressing that that will bring into play the government financing of the things that you objected. And if that were the case you would say when we pressed that button we are facilitating and bringing about the very things that we object to, we are complicit. I dont know that we would, first of all, by pressing the button with whom we have contracted to arrange for the services, we might not be a part of that. If the pressing a button is not substantially different. This is the kind of thing, these are difficult and philosophical and moral lessons and im no
Later a look at the International Response to the Ebola Outbreak in west africa. Wednesday the Senate Banking Committee Held a hearing on freddie mac, fannie mae and the state of the Housing Mortgage industry. Congressman mel watt took the updated members on new efforts to assist homeowners. This is 90 minutes. I call this hearing, your honor, welcome back to the committee. Since this is likely my last hearing regarding gses i would like to encourage my colleagues to for the past three years, we and our staff have spent count less hours wrestling with the possible solutions and pittal falls. Some options are not practical, while others are too it logical, yet we still need to find a solution. The enterprises remain trapped today. Fhfa continues to perform the dual role of both regulating and rating the business of the largest entities in the Mortgage Market. This is not sustainable. And there is no consensus in Congress Regarding how to move forward. All the while, the credit box remai