Political Quotes

“I thank the chairman and appreciate his work on bringing this important bill to the floor, and I thank my friend, Chairman Royce, from California, for sponsoring the House version of this measure, H.R. 2243, and I stand in full support with the Senate version tonight, S. 2036. Mr. Speaker, since being placed in voluntary conservatorship, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, in my judgment, has really abdicated their responsibility with the Treasury in acting truly as a conservator. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have received almost $200 billion in government assistance, by far our costliest taxpayer bailout resulting from the financial crisis. This is also not the first time that the GSEs, the government- sponsored enterprises, were placed in conservatorship and that the FHFA has been scrutinized for awarding increased pay to the CEOs. That has been previously discussed in detail here. And largely in response to that criticism of FHFA's failure to properly administer these entities in conservatorship, the GSE's CEO compensation was capped in 2012 at $600,000. Now, miraculously, they are being approved for millions in pay increases despite the fact that these entities are still, Mr. Speaker, in conservatorship. It is for that reason, Mr. Speaker, on July 30 that I wrote Mel Watt, the Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and awarded him my monthly Golden Fleece Award for poor stewardship of taxpayer resources. I include my letter to Mr. Watt in the Record.…”