Fannie Mae Oversight Bill Clears House
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
WASHINGTON — Legislation to tighten federal oversight of the two biggest buyers of home mortgages, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, cleared the House yesterday.
However, the bill could lose the critical support of the Bush administration because of a new provision trimming the authority of federal regulators.
The vote in the House was 313–104 for the measure providing for stricter federal supervision of the two government-sponsored companies, which together finance or guarantee more than three-quarters of American home mortgages. The legislation also would create a housing aid fund — worth as much as $3 billion — to be financed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
All 104 opposing votes came from Republicans, who were sharply split. Ninety other GOP lawmakers joined the unified 223 Democrats to sweep the bill to passage.
The legislation is the product of a compromise between majority Democrats in the House and the administration.
Multibillion-dollar accounting scandals that roiled Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in recent years brought demands for tighter government supervision and cuts in the companies’s massive mortgage holdings, now worth a combined $1.5 trillion.
