Jack Reed

I believe right now the situation is actually pretty good

The principal route of entry was through Pakistan and I presume the principal route of exit would be through Pakistan

I think you put your finger on the issue of predators because that is absolutely contradictory to what is the essential aspect of the American soldiers, airmen, sailors, marines, which is selfless service and complete and utter dedication…

Given what we are all talking about, the budget limitations of the Federal Government, as you identify gaps in particularly non-Federal functions of the National Guard, there seems to be also at least the opportunity to talk about how…

The policy of the President to prevent the Iranian Government from obtaining nuclear weapons--and that is a policy that I agree with and concur with.

Can you assure us that you believe there are no material misstatements or material omissions in those statements?

So the answer is you have no concerns.

Have you directed Fannie or Freddie or both to independently conduct an evaluation of the pros and cons of principal reduction as a way to, hopefully, in the long run, enhance the value of their franchises?

Trend of deference to the Enterprises, including a reliance on the determination of the Enterprises without independently testing and validating them.

It is not perfect. Seldom do we do perfect things here. But it is progress and we have not seen a lot of progress over the last few years.

We have gone to extraordinary lengths to provide support for financial institutions, mainly through Federal Reserve policy of lowering interest rates very close to zero.

You have led the way with proposals to expand the effectiveness of the HAMP program to make it more useful.

But as you know, Senator, FHFA has done a great deal of independent review itself of this important matter because I believe that assuring that we are taking appropriate steps to provide assistance to troubled borrowers is very much at the…

But you are the conservator. You are representing the Federal Government in everything that they do or fail to do.

Has too few examiners to ensure the efficiency and the effectiveness of its GSE oversight programs.

I think the paralysis that we have seen around here, maybe it has been broken, because now, at least, we have taken a step forward.

In the short term, I think that both you and to a degree Dr. Mayer are saying there are steps that the conservator could and should be taking right now.

Hopefully they will do the calculation, and it will be the right calculation.

It should have been done.

In fact, my sense is you are arguing that this is really what he should be doing because of his obligations under the present law to, you know, stabilize and to recover as much assets and be as businesslike as possible.

Conserving and preserving assets is an incredibly important goal.

It is a lot smarter for a bank to keep someone in their home paying rent and maybe even have a principal kicker at the end than to foreclose.

The principal goal of the conservator should be to preserve taxpayer money

I am frustrated. I am frustrated by it.

I am perplexed. I have my models, and I look at this data very carefully