So you are pretty confident you are going to be OK. Is that what you are saying here?

Based on current projections and absent any catastrophic home price decline, FHA will not need to ask Congress and the American taxpayer for extraordinary assistance. There is no need for any 'bailout'.

We must ensure that this never happens again, but the question is: Will we?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I fear that the longer we wait, the more it is going to cost the American taxpayer.

There is no doubt that the failure of Fannie and Freddie was a significant actor in the financial crisis because their activities touched nearly every aspect of our financial system.

Because you cannot--I do not believe you can have one institution or two institutions this big with very thin capital, because you are waiting for the time bomb to go off.

I believe that this is a grave mistake that will make it more difficult to reform our financial system and that will potentially expose taxpayers to even greater losses.

We have underpriced it at our own peril, have we not?

Despite repeated warnings by me and other Members of this Committee about the risk that GSEs presented, they were allowed to accumulate more than $5 trillion in financial obligations with only minimal amounts of capital.

I am at a loss as to why the Administration does not or did not consider the GSEs to be a central cause meriting immediate consideration in regulatory reform.

To properly consider the future of the housing GSEs, one should first consider the goals policymakers have for the U.S. housing finance system, and specifically the secondary market.