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Chairman Hensarling delivered the keynote address today at the Bipartisan Policy Center Housing Commission’s Regional Forum at the George W. Bush Presidential Center. Remarks as prepared for delivery: I want to thank the Bipartisan Policy Center for the work it has done on housing finance reform. I especially want to recognize the outstanding leadership and service of people like Secretary Martinez and Secretary Cisneros. Thank you, gentlemen, for continuing to serve our nation by promoting solutions to our nation’s housing challenges. I commend you. Let me also thank the Center for promoting... Read More »

Chairman Hensarling said taxpayers will “never ever, ever again be called upon to bail out Washington for irresponsible housing policies” if the Financial Services Committee’s sustainable housing finance reform bill becomes law. The Chairman’s comments came during a discussion of the bill – the Protecting American Taxpayers and Homeowners Act (the PATH Act) – on “Speaking of Taxpayers,” the podcast of the National Taxpayers Union. America needs “a sustainable housing finance system, and that’s what we’re trying to create here,” Chairman Hensarling said during the interview. “Number one, it has... Read More »

House Republicans are hard at work reforming America’s housing finance system so it’s sustainable for home owners, respectful of hard-working taxpayers, and built to last. Today – more than five years after the financial crisis and three years since the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act – President Obama delivered a speech outlining his principles for housing finance reform. While it’s encouraging that the president is finally engaging in this debate, House Republicans have already taken the lead in moving legislation and consistently called for housing finance reform in order to protect taxpayers... Read More »

Capital Markets & GSEs Subcommittee Chairman Scott Garrett (Facebook | Twitter) delivers this week's Sunday Video Message -- our last before the August District Work Period -- on the PATH Act. Read More »

Wall Street Journal | Just Another Bureaucracy The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau likes to portray itself as a virtuous, upstart and independent agency focused on helping the little guy. In reality it's just another big bureaucracy that rolls out thousands of pages of new rules every year, generating lucrative business opportunities for lawyers and the agency's well-connected alumni. The American | Big Bureaucracy: The CFPB Turns 2 The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is everything that both proponents and critics thought it would be, and that’s not a good thing. Washington Times | B... Read More »

Financial Institutions & Consumer Credit Subcommittee Chairman Shelley Moore Capito (Facebook | Twitter) delivers this week's Sunday Video Message on the PATH Act. The Protecting American Taxpayers and Homeowners Act was approved by the full committee on Wednesday. Read More »

Editorial | July 25, 2013 THE POLITICS of housing finance reform are starting to get interesting. On Wednesday, the Republican-controlled House Financial Services Committee passed the Protecting American Taxpayers and Homeowners (PATH) Act, which would wind down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and replace the busted entities with — well, nothing, pretty much. For the first time in decades, no “government-sponsored enterprise” would be responsible for bundling most mortgages into marketable securities. Under PATH, private investors would perform that function; Washington’s only role would be to sup... Read More »

“…if you don't get rid of the permanent, everyday government guarantee in the secondary mortgage market, I fear all you've done is put Fannie and Freddie in the Federal Witness Protection Program. Give them a facelift, give them new names, maybe they come out as Eddie and Annie. And yet they're released on an unsuspecting public.” Hensarling on the PATH Act – Protecting American Taxpayers & Homeowners – and how it winds down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: “Well, one, it doesn't get the government out of the housing business. What it does is, over a five-year transition period, it does get the gov... Read More »

Housing & Insurance Subcommittee Chairman Randy Neugebauer (Facebook | Twitter) delivers this week's Sunday Video Message on the PATH Act. The full committee will markup the PATH Act this Tuesday at 10:15 a.m. Read more about the act -- including how it sustains the 30-year fixed rate mortgage and enables FHA to play an expanded role in times of crisis -- on our Bottom Line Blog. Read More »

AEI: FHA Watch – July 2013 The Protecting American Taxpayers and Homeowners (PATH) Act provides for comprehensive reform of the government’s role in housing finance. Heritage Foundation: Dodd-Frank at Year Three: Onerous and Costly July 21 marks the third anniversary of Dodd–Frank, Washington’s massive regulatory response to the housing market collapse, the failure of major financial firms, and the resulting shock to the economy in 2008. Consumers are facing dramatically higher banking fees and fewer service options because of new government constraints on credit. And for all its vast regulato... Read More »