On the recordJune 10, 2014
I rise, yet again, to raise the alarm over taxpayer-funded housing policy. This straightforward amendment that you have before you would prohibit Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from using funds to pay housing advocacy groups or others through the housing trust fund at a time when they continue to owe money to the American people. Beginning in 2008, the U.S. taxpayers bailed out the GSEs to the tune of $189 billion. That number is expected to grow to over $200 billion by 2015; but as the housing market has begun to recover, so, too, have Fannie's and Freddie's profits. At the first sign of money rolling in, some housing advocates are pressuring the Federal Housing Finance Agency to get a piece of the taxpayer-funded pie. They have gone to extraordinary lengths, even filing a lawsuit last summer to try to force contributions to the trust fund. Originally slated to receive funds siphoned off from the GSEs, the trust fund was never capitalized due, of course, to the fact that the GSEs went into conservatorship. Without passage of this amendment, the director of the FHFA could turn on that spigot at any moment. Contrary to what Fannie and Freddie apologists may claim, the GSEs have yet to repay any of the taxpayer-funded bailout. The cash injection into the GSEs was made in the form of a draw from the U.S. Treasury, not a loan to be repaid. No so-called repayment can be made as long as American taxpayers are on the hook for future losses.…
