Newsroom

July 28, 2015

House poised to take up highway bill, NAFCU urging no g-fee use

With the House planning a vote as early as today on a three-month, highway-funding extension, NAFCU is urging anew that a proposal to increase government-sponsored enterprise guarantee fees, or g-fees, be kept out of a longer-term transportation bill Congress will likely need to pass this fall.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, is now pushing for a three-month extension of the highway trust fund until Oct. 29. The Senate has passed a six-year extension that includes reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank, but House leaders have said they will not take up the bill.

NAFCU has urged lawmakers not to use Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's credit risk guarantee fees (g-fees) as a funding mechanism for the highway trust fund.

In a letter to Senate leaders yesterday, NAFCU and 12 other financial and housing trade associations notedthat increasing g-fees for programs unrelated to housing has had a detrimental impact on homebuyers and consumers. The trades also thanked Senators Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, and Mark Warner, D-Virginia, for opposing the use of g-fees as a funding mechanism in the Senate bill.

"Increasing g-fees for other purposes—even just extending the current fee increase for four years—effectively taxes potential homebuyers and consumers looking to refinance their mortgages," the trades wrote in their letter.

Current highway funding runs out at the end of the month.