Barney Frank: “We have for these couple of years now had a bipartisan effort that began in the Bush administration and has been…”

“We have for these couple of years now had a bipartisan effort that began in the Bush administration and has been continued in the Obama administration--and it's been bipartisan on the Committee of Financial Services--to make sure that the FHA is both an effective and an efficient means for housing finance. Having a reliable way to provide the funding needed for housing finance in its various aspects is important both for the citizens who benefit from it and for the economy. The FHA had not been in a great shape. We have a package of measures and we have had administrations--and as I say it's been bipartisan on the two administrations in our committee--to improve the FHA's capacity, to increase its capacity, but also to provide that it will be done in a reasonable way. This House passed earlier this year overwhelmingly, by a bipartisan vote, a comprehensive reform of the FHA. It may shock the Members to know, Mr. Speaker, that the United States Senate has not acted expeditiously on this noncontroversial measure, and there are a couple of pieces of it that cannot wait.”