The House Financial Services Committee's April schedule marks acontinuation of Chairman Jeb Hensarling's (R-Texas) agenda toreform the housing market, with five hearings scheduled toexamine government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and FreddieMac, the Federal Housing Administration and the Department ofHousing and Urban Development.

Those dates will add to the five hearings the committee hasalready conducted this year regarding on the topic. In particular,the committee has investigated how government policies may havecontributed to the housing market meltdown, and how the secondarymarket can be reformed to reduce taxpayer liability and includemore private investment.

Hensarling favors a privatization of the GSEs. In his openingremarks during a March 19 hearing in which Acting Federal HousingFinance Administration Director Edward DeMarco updated thecommittee on the progress of the GSEs' conservatorships, Hensarlingsaid he was “determined” that the hearing would be the last timeDeMarco or his successor will testify before the committee pens GSEreform legislation.

“This I define as legislation to once and for all abolish FannieMae and Freddie Mac as government-sponsored enterprises,”Hensarling said. “And two, one that would truly create asustainable housing policy. Sustainable for our economy,sustainable for those seeking the goal of homeownership, andsustainable for hard-working taxpayers who should never, ever, becalled upon again to bail out Wall Street.”

Credit union trade associations haven't necessarily opposed GSEreform, but both CUNA and NAFCU have stressed that any reforms mustinclude assurances that credit unions would continue to haveunencumbered access to the secondary mortgage market.

In a March 18 letter to the Senate Banking Committee, which alsoconducted a hearing on housing reform earlier this week, NAFCUPresident/CEO Fred Becker said NAFCU does not support fullprivatization of the GSEs because of serious concerns that creditunions could be shut out from the secondary market.

NAFCU supports the creation or existence of multiple GSEs thatwould perform the essential functions currently performed by FannieMae and Freddie Mac, but added that the GSEs should be self-funded,without any dedicated government appropriation.

“GSE's fee structures should, in addition to size and volume,place increased emphasis on quality of loans,” Beckerwrote. “Credit union loans provide the quality necessary toimprove the salability of agency securities.”

Two hearings – on April 10 and April 16 – will discussregulatory relief for small community financial institutions.Although the schedule does not mention credit unions specifically,and hearings discussing regulatory burden have so far this yearfocused on banks, a committee staffer told CreditUnion Times on Tuesday the committee does plan to conducta hearing that will focus on credit union regulatory burden.

Other topics on the schedule include the U.S. role in theInternational Monetary Fund and the so-called “too big to fail”status of big banks.

All hearings will take place in the Financial ServicesCommittee's main hearing room, 2128 Rayburn. The committee said ina release that its schedule is tentative and will depend uponwitness availability and other factors that may requirechanges. Therefore, each meeting will become final only whenthe official notice is distributed.