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
Like you were at some of these meetings where some of these things were discussed no, the nsa was there, i just got the tapes. Im sorry. So we dont have a public listing, per se, but in the first phase of power africa, we did very carefully, through a rigorous interagency process, discuss which would be the six focus countries. And the factors that you describe are, indeed, many of the things that we looked at, to try to assess who would be the good partners. And we will go through a similar process as we think about the expansion. One of the ones that i theres plenty to say about all of them, but one of the ones that ill just spend a moment on is the host countrys commitment. Because as some of the other testimony alluded to, if youre trying to have viable electric utilities, if youre trying to solve some of the problems that are private sector, investors have encountered, in trying to do viable deals, youve got to have a commitment to do things differently. So that was a very one of
Get the turks and the turks wont do it unless we go after assad. So are we getting sucked deeper and deeper, and back to the original question, what should we do, jim . Well, i mean, i think theres no doubt that isis eventually will be driven out of the Population Centers in iraq or at least lose control of them. I mean, they may go underground but they will lose control because theyre a minority of the sunni population which is a minority of the iraqi population, and so the kurds and the shia between them with whatever marginal help they get from the sunnis are eventually going to retake that territory with our assistance, and i dont think that means that you have to put american infantry on the ground. There are boots on the ground. There will be forward observers and advisers and some of them may get killed, but thats a different level of engagement. The real question is syria. I mean, this group emerged out of syria. Many of them are iraqis, but essentially emerged out of syria. It
Operating under those circumstances. Miss wertheimer has the opportunity today to inform us how she will handle these exceptional challenges. I look forward to hearing from each of ou nominees on these important issues and more. Thank you, senator. There is an 11 00 vote scheduled for them. Its the law of sufficient time to allow questions. We have agreed to limit Opening Statements to the chair and Ranking Member. All senators will welcomed to submit an Opening Statement for the record. Senator curnan will now introduce mayor castro. Thank you mr. Chairman and Ranking Member crapo. Its my pleasure to be with you here today to introduce a fellow san antonioian and texan mr. Castro. He has told me that hes glad to be here and looked forward to your question buzz he especially looks forward to being back in san antonio to help celebrate the victory of the San Antonio Spurs which that celebration is still going on and will for a long time. I know he will take the opportunity to introduce
Introduce my family who has accompanied me here today. My husband andy, our daughter, kate, my stead fast mother, my inlaws walter and ann pinkas. With that, let me get to the meat of what id like to say in my statement. The fhfa plays a crucial role in our financial system. As the safety and soundness regulator of fannie mae, fannie mac, and the 12 regional federal home loan banks. To ensure they operate in a safe and sound measure and serve as a reliable source of liquidity and funding for Housing Finance. As senator crapo mentioned, since 2008, almost six years now, the agency has acted as conservator for fannie mae and fannie mac to protect the assets and properties of those enterprises and protect the tax payers investment which is currently 187. 5 billion. Currently fannie mae and fannie mac guarantee more than 5 trillion in mortgages in this country. Three out of over four. Congress mandated strong independent oversight of Agency Programs and operations by the fhfa oig to safe g