Johnny Isakson: “this morning it was announced that the former officers of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are going to be prosecuted, or…”

“this morning it was announced that the former officers of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae are going to be prosecuted, or cases have been filed, for their misrepresentation of the liabilities that both of those institutions posed to the American Congress and American taxpayers. Last year when we passed the Dodd-Frank amendment on mortgages and on risk retention, we exempted Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae from the liability that every other company in the country had to go through. We find ourselves today in a place where Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have cost the American taxpayer at least $171 billion. That number is rising because of the exemption from Dodd-Frank; Freddie and Fannie, other than FHA, are the only act in town. A week ago I introduced a piece of legislation to deal with this issue. It is a piece of legislation that will terminate Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and create a bridge, or a transition, from where we are to a privatized mortgage securitization and guarantee program. I want to briefly address how that takes place because in the end it will pay back the American taxpayer. It will put Freddie and Fannie out of business, and we will have a robust mortgage market available to the American people as the housing market begins to recover in this country. First of all, the legislation creates a new entity called the Mortgage Finance Agency. It is an agency with directors that are appointed by the President with advice-and-consent approval by the Senate.…”