GSEs in Congress' Crosshairs

WASHINGTON, DC-A bill unveiled by a bipartisan group of Senators last week reads like a step-by-step roadmap for dismantling the GSEs and rebuilding housing finance from the ground up. Not that the bill, “Housing Finance Reform and Taxpayer Protection Act” pretends anything otherwise.

One of the measure’s tenants, co-authors Sens. Bob Corker (R-TN) and Mark Warner (D-VA)have plainly said, is to dissolve Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac within five years of the bill’s passage and have a “different, modernized and streamlined agency” take over its remaining functions. [See "A Roadmap for Housing Finance Change," for other requirements in the bill.]