Sean Duffy

I think we have to figure out how to do both.

I heard a stat that half of Americans are a $400 financial crisis away from being in financially hard times.

I was elected to represent rich people and poor people.

Maybe they should write their debt or make some more money before they actually get a mortgage.

What is sustainable is what we have now: Basically government entities ensuring loans.

Home ownership is the American Dream. People want to own a home.

The concept that we have capitalism on the way up and socialism on the way down, I would argue doesn't work well for anybody.

Most people in my district go, 'I don't want to itemize for that.'

We absolutely have to deal with Fannie and Freddie. This is consistent with what you have heard, from both sides of the aisle.

I believe that if we are going to be successful not just in the House but in the Senate, we have to address this on a bipartisan level.

If you want to give tax breaks to the rich, say it.

Third, losing a home, whether it be through a natural disaster or through a financial crisis, is a tragedy, the root causes of which should never be the consequences of misguided Federal policy.

I think the question of what percent the market will bear should be preceded by what outcomes would you like to see on the front end?

In the 20 years I have been here, I have never seen a committee put out a major piece of legislation that then never made it to the floor.

It is important to remember that we are in the midst of an affordable housing crisis, and this funding plays an important role in developing and creating affordable housing in our country.

The fact is we are doomed to repeat history unless we take the time and hearings like this one to dig into those difficult issues that our constituents sent us here to address.

Do you think any of your bankers would not be put in jail? And yet that is exactly what the Federal Government is doing to Fannie and Freddie.

I think it is a mistake. However, to look at them in sort of disparate tracks and instead to look at housing finance reform, indeed, on a holistic basis.

I don't think anybody has ever said Fannie and Freddie didn't play where they shouldn't have played, but they didn't create it.

We are having, I don't know, the 400th hearing on housing market, and yet we all agree it has to be done, but we can't get it done.

Americans deserve a competitive marketplace that provides choice and opportunity to the hardworking men and women of this country.

It is fair to say that this has a huge impact on all of our States. And if you outsource it for an FIO to cut an agreement without our approval, we are disenfranchising the very people who elected us to represent them.

I believe that the last few years have demonstrated that we can do much better in terms of regulatory efficiency and returning more authority back to the States.

The Federal Insurance Office Reform Act...would properly refocus the FIO and bring its activities more in line with the original intention for the office.

It is your opinion that the Duffy-Heck bill would address some of the problems that became apparent in the E.U.-U.S. agreement?