On the recordJune 30, 2010
I rise in opposition to this rule and to the underlying legislation. I rise because reform is desperately needed, but the reforms needed most are not in this bill. For example, this legislation fails to reform the government-sponsored enterprises, and when you think about it, the housing crisis and the meltdown that we saw in that sector, and most of the losses, were in the government-sponsored enterprises. That was not caused by a lack of government intervention. Each of those failed institutions had a regulator overseeing it, but it was Congress, especially with the GSE Act, actively tying the hands of those regulators in what amounted to a failed attempt, maybe for a good social end, the idea was to get everybody into a home. But to do that by putting these mandates on the GSEs that 50 percent of the portfolios that they held, 50 percent of that $1.7 trillion in portfolios that they held be in subprime and Alt-A, obviously, obviously created very real problems. The political intervention to get the 20 percent down payment down to 3 percent and then down to zero obviously had an effect. These institutions, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, were at the center of the housing market, and they were largely responsible for some 70 percent of subprime and Alt-A mortgages throughout our financial system.
