*The TRUTH* about HR 146, Fannie Mae, and Barney Frank

[underpants]

H.R. 1461 <109th>: Federal Housing Finance Reform Act of 2005
Bill Text: Summary | Full Text
Cost: $6 per American over the 2007-2010 period.
Status:
Occurred: Introduced Apr 5, 2005
Occurred: Reported by Committee Sep 16, 2005
Occurred: Amendments (9 proposed)

Occurred: Passed House

Oct 26, 2005
Not Yet Occurred: Voted on in Senate -
Not Yet Occurred: Signed by President -
This bill never became law. This bill was proposed in a previous session of Congress. Sessions of Congress last two years, and at the end of each session all proposed bills and resolutions that haven't passed are cleared from the books.
Last Action: Oct 31, 2005: Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h109-1461

FACT CHECK: BUSH ADMINISTRATION'S TRACK RECORD OF DEREGULATION
Sep 25, 2008
October 8, 2003: Bush administration objected to a proposal to have an independent regulator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac be an independent unit of Treasury, much like financial regulators housed in the agency that oversee banks and thrifts. The Bush administration also objected to a proposal to have the Department of Housing and Urban Development have oversight over the companies' business activities. The independence provision has broad support from committee Democrats and Republicans. The HUD provision was pushed mostly by Democrats but had been accepted by Oxley and Baker as a compromise needed to move the bill forward.
http://www.zibb.com/article/4043921/FACT+CHECK+BUSH+ADMINISTRATION+S+TRACK+RECORD+OF+DEREGULATION

Republican Congress Talked About Financial Reform, But Did Nothing
Thursday September 18, 2008
In 2003, Republicans controlled both branches of Congress (108th) and the White House. What happened to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac regulatory reform under Republican leadership? Nothing.

Here's what I found when I searched THOMAS for the phrase Fannie Mae for the 108th Congress (2003-2004): eight bills .... but only six appear to relate to this topic, per their title. Of those six, only one was introduced after the White House weighed in (at least rhetorically) in September ... and the prime sponsor of that bill was a Democrat. The other bills seem to have resulted from the July scandal. No bill moved out of committee.
http://uspolitics.about.com/b/2008/09/18/republican-congress-talked-about-financial-reform-but-did-nothing.htm


Barney Frank respondsSeptember 12, 2008
Sam Dealey's recent blog post, "Barney Frank's Fannie and Freddie Muddle", on September 10, 2008, stretches the truth beyond recognition to attack me. While I will use the remainder of this blog post to refute, and therefore tell the truth, of my involvement with the regulatory oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, I am very curious as to why Mr. Dealey did not reach out to me to find out the truth. I assume for some Washington, DC, based editorial writers it is easier to make assumptions—however wrong—and make accusations based on those wrong assumptions rather than to make a simple phone call.

Mr. Dealey points to comments made by former Treasury Secretary John Snow as evidence that reform of the Government Sponsored Enterprises of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were "called" for by the Bush Administration as the basis for the attack against me, but please note he does not list GSE reform as an accomplishment of Mr. Snow's tenure at Treasury or the first seven years of the Administration—that did not happen until the eighth year of the Bush term when a bill that I authored was enacted into law. The President and Mr. Snow failed to deliver—even when their party was in charge of both houses of Congress.

Dealey then cites comments I made in 2003 that the GSEs are not in trouble as evidence that I did not support reform. Wrong. I supported reform then, I support reform now and I delivered. Dealey also fails to report that the Bush Administration did not support the reform efforts of Republican former House Financial Services Committee Chairman Mike Oxley, who recently told the Financial Times that the White House gave him "the one-finger salute" for his efforts to bring about GSE reform.

I also supported—with major opposition from the Bush Administration and their conservative Congressional allies—a tough federal law against predatory lending, and I urged then-Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan to write regulations based on the Home Owners Equity Protection Act passed by a Democratic Congress in 1994. Those regulations would have outlawed many of the irresponsible lending practices that fueled the housing bubble and now threaten the entire economy. His successor, Ben Bernanke, issued these regulations last July after seeing the economically disastrous impact of an unregulated market. If we had a predatory lending law and had Greenspan acted on authority he was given, we might have avoided the subprime crisis entirely. The Democratic majority also delivered, with the help of our Committee's Ranking Member, Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL), on a mortgage reform and anti-predatory lending law in 2007.

In addition, the author points to the fact that I voted against GSE reform in 2005, but does not tell readers why. The Republican majority inserted language at the last minute that would prohibit religious organizations from participating. The Catholic and Lutheran churches, and many others, sponsor some of the best not- for-profit housing development organizations in the country. It is only because of this ridiculous action by arch-conservative Republicans that I cast my vote "no". It was not because I was opposed to tougher regulations and oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The House Financial Services Committee, which I chair, moved aggressively after we took over as the majority party in January, 2007, and passed GSE Reform in March of 2007. We worked cooperatively with Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson to strengthen the bill and the full house voted for GSE reform in early May 2007. I also proposed to Secretary Paulson that we include GSE reform in the stimulus package passed by Congress in January 2008, but he declined, citing problems with the White House with this approach. Now, thanks to the efforts of the Democratic majority, and thanks to the work of former-Chairman Mike Oxley, President Bush can finally count GSE reform as an accomplishment.

A simple phone call to my office would have helped Mr. Dealey get his facts straight.
http://www.usnews.com/blogs/sam-dealey/2008/9/12/speaking-frank-ly--barney-frank-fires-back-on-fannie-mae-and-freddie-mac.html