GOP Members Urge Continued Housing Trust Fund Non-Payments
April 18, 2014
The recently installed head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency is getting a lot of conflicting advice about whether Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should contribute to the housing trust funds. Last week in a letter to FHFA Director Mel Watt, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-TX, urged Watt to continue the Finance Agency’s five-year old policy of withholding GSE contributions to the trust funds. Hensarling’s letter – co-signed by Reps. Scott Garrett, R-NJ, and Ed Royce, R-CA – followed a similar letter by GOP senators in early March, which countered a January letter by 33 Democrats calling on Watt to authorize Fannie and Freddie funding to the National Housing Trust Fund immediately.