Newsroom

August 14, 2013

Hensarling optimistic on housing finance reform

Aug. 14, 2013 – House Financial Services Committee Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, told a gathering of the Bipartisan Policy Center in Dallas Tuesday that he is "cautiously optimistic" about prospects for housing finance reform given the president's policy announcement last week.

"He seemingly wants to get something done," Hensarling said of Obama, according to a Marketwatch.com blog post.

NAFCU President and CEO B. Dan Berger reiterated that any housing finance reform effort should ensure credit unions continued, unfettered access to the secondary mortgage market and fair pricing that recognizes the high quality of credit union underwriting.

Hensarling is chief sponsor of H.R. 2767, the "Protecting American Taxpayers and Homeowners (PATH) Act," which, among other things, envisions a wind-down of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac over a five-year period. The president's policy outline also contemplates eliminating these entities in five years, but the president's plan is closer to S. 1217, the "Housing Finance Reform and Taxpayer Protection Act," introduced by Sens. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Mark Warner, D-Va.

In last week's policy outline, the White House pointed to the importance of ensuring credit unions an community banks having the same opportunity to compete in the housing finance market. "Community banks and credit unions must be given the same opportunity to compete in any future system to ensure that consumers have the broadest number of options and can work with the lenders that [are] best for them," according to a White House fact sheet.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told Nevada Public Radio he isn't ready to end Fannie and Freddie and that proposals to do so will be closely scrutinized.