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FANNIE MAE RESPONDS TO
ALLEGATIONS
Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), Chairman
of the House Financial Services Committee,
said that the committee would be launching
a full investigation into recent allegations in a
Bloomberg report that high-ranking Fannie
Mae employees were intentionally violating their
government prohibition on lobbying.
Hensarling said that if the media report was
true, this violation was "more than an outrage,
it is a direct affront on taxpayers and the current
structure of the federally-backed conservatorship
that has allowed Fannie Mae to operate for the
last decade."
Fannie Mae received a bailout of more than
$120 billion during the financial crisis. "As a
condition of receiving those funds, Fannie Mae
was explicitly prohibited from engaging in 'all
political activities—including all lobbying,' a
prohibition which it is now being reported Fannie
has deliberately violated," Hensarling said.
However, Fannie Mae has denied these
allegations. "Fannie Mae does not lobby and has
not advocated for any specific policy outcomes
on housing finance reform," Pete Bakel, a
spokesperson for Fannie Mae, told DS News.
Calling on the Congress to truly solve the
problem of "the broken GSE hybrid finance
model," Hensarling said, "Congress must enact
sustainable housing finance reform as soon
as possible and once and for all get rid of any
backdoor attempts to resurrect the old, failed
ways of the past."
ese allegations stem from a recent report
that quoted unnamed sources saying that some
of Fannie Mae's executives were secretly lobbying
among housing finance stakeholders that the best
outcome for the GSEs would be to get released
from government control and that they wanted it
done without the involvement of Congress.
"As part of our normal course of business, we
analyze policy proposals and existing law," Bakel
said. "We answer questions from customers,
industry groups, and similar stakeholders and
provide information about potential implications
of the proposals on the market. It is up to
Congress, not Fannie Mae, to determine the
future of housing finance reform legislation."
