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Cmte Financial Services (R)
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FSC Majority | Week in Review

Washington, Jan 23 -

Committee Adopts Oversight Plan

On Wednesday the Committee voted unanimously to adopt the Committee's oversight plan for the 114th Congress.

"No one in Washington – Republican or Democrat – should ever be allowed to carelessly spend the hard-eared taxpayers’ money. And that is why this committee will continually and vigilantly monitor every agency and every program under our jurisdiction. Hopefully we feel this is a bipartisan mission and a bipartisan commitment," said Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-TX).

"If a program isn’t working, if it does more harm than good, it is time to reform it or it is time to get rid of it. If policies or regulations don’t make common sense, let’s make them sensible. That will lead to a better economy," added Chairman Hensarling. "As all of us know, consumers remain very concerned about the economy. Still too many live paycheck to paycheck. Too many have seen their paychecks shrink. Americans deserve an economy that meets its full potential. That is something I hope members on both sides of the aisle will be committed to -- that we will have a healthier, more robust economy."

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

Rep. Patrick McHenry | McHenry: "Get Lending Moving Again"

“The number one priority is to ensure that we get lending moving again,” McHenry said, during a phone interview. “Small community banks and credit unions have been harmed by the regulatory agenda in Washington that makes it more costly to get credit and less available in a time where families and small businesses need access to capital. In addition to that, it’s important that we ensure that the government is no longer on the hook for bailouts of banks, or any other institution, for that matter, in the United States. We’re working through changes to Dodd-Frank to ensure that the government is not on the hook for bailouts going forward.”

Weekend Must Reads

Washington Post | The Federal Housing Administration’s risky move to lower premiums

Taxpayers might legitimately wonder, however, why it’s necessary to take on this additional risk so soon after the FHA’s bailout, before the capital cushion is even halfway rebuilt — and at a time when homebuyers are already enjoying record-low interest rates, plus a windfall from cheaper gasoline. The president’s own estimate of the cash savings from the premium cut implies that it would pump less than $1 billion a year of consumer cash into an economy that is already recovering well without it. The premium reduction takes effect Jan. 26, so the administration can still reconsider, which is what it will do if it has really learned a key lesson of the Great Recession: Finance in general, and mortgage finance in particular, is riskier than it sometimes seems, and the best protection against those risks is a solid core of capital. 

CNBC | Kiss that 'shrinking' budget deficit goodbye

"However, mandatory federal spending, especially for public retirement and health-care benefits, continued to expand unabated in the first three months of the fiscal year. Such rising mandatory expenditures foreshadow spiraling federal deficits and debt ahead."

Investor's Business Daily | Next Housing Bubble Will Be Caused By Gov't, Not 'Greed'

Fannie and Freddie are now purchasing the large majority of mortgages and announced last month that they would buy mortgages with only 3% down payments. The qualified mortgage standards that HUD and other regulators laid down in October allowed for mortgages with zero down payments. That sounds like a recipe for another housing bubble — and for mass foreclosures, which hurt the policies' intended beneficiaries — and perhaps for another financial crisis as well.

CNN Money | Obama says wages are growing. They're not

Wages basically didn't grow at all in 2014, according to the Labor Department. The median weekly wage at the end of 2014 was $796 (seasonally adjusted). That's barely changed from the same time in 2013, when the weekly wage was $794.

    On the Horizon 

January 27, 2015 10:00 a.m.
Full Committee Hearing
"Sustainable Housing Finance: An Update from the Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency