Three More Congressmen Sign on to Bill to Reform GSE Regulation

WASHINGTON – Reps. David Scott (D-Ga.), Jeb Hansarly (R-Texas) and Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) are the latest members of Congress to add his name to the growing list of co-sponsors to a bill, H.R. 2575, to reform the regulation of Government-sponsored enterprises. The latest three additions brings the total number of co-sponsors for H.R. 2575 to 22. Introduced by Rep. Richard Banker (R-La.), chairman of the House Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance and Government Sponsored Enterprises in response to the fallout from accounting misstatements and an upper management housecleaning at Freddie Mac in June, H.R. 2575 would among other things, change the name of the Office of Thrift Supervision to the Office of Housing Finance Supervision and move the regulation of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to the OHFS from the Office Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO). H.R. 2575 was referred to the Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance and Government Sponsored Enterprises on July 9. Treasury Secretary John Snow was scheduled to testify before the House Financial Services Committee Sept. 4 on the regulatory structure of the housing GSEs. His testimony was rescheduled for Sept. 10.