Political Quotes

“The STOP Act is the Stop the Outrageous Pay for Fannie and Freddie Act, the bill Senator Thune and I introduced this morning. Our bill comes in the aftermath of a series of events that began last November when reports surfaced that the Federal Housing Finance Agency, FHFA, approved nearly $13 million in bonuses for 10 executives, that enterprise that supervises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In response, Senator Thune and I spearheaded a bipartisan letter, signed by 58 other Senators to the FHFA, Acting Director Edward DeMarco and the Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner. We expressed outrage over these pay levels, and I believe our message was heard. Almost 3 months after our letter was sent, the pressure was clearly on. Government regulators were cutting the pay of the executives they hired to replace the departing heads of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Also, in response to our efforts, House Financial Services Committee chairman Spencer Bachus introduced legislation suspending these bonuses and limiting future compensation packages for Fannie and Freddie employees. In November, his committee passed the bill by a vote of 52 to 4. The Begich-Thune STOP Act is a commonsense approach to address the outrageous Wall Street-like bonuses and pay that have occurred at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for far too long and which continue to occur to this day, even after billions in taxpayer bailouts. I wish to make it clear, this bill will not change the life much for nonexecutives.…”