Patrick McHenryChairman

Washington, January 17, 2012 - -Financial Services Committee Chairman Spencer Bachus reacted Tuesday to reports that government regulators will cut the pay of the executives they hire to succeed the departing heads of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Chairman Bachus first proposed legislation to suspend the pay packages and stop bonuses for executives of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 2010.  He reintroduced the bill in 2011 as H.R. 1221 and the Financial Services Committee approved the measure on an overwhelming and bipartisan vote of 52-4 on November 15.

“The fact that the top executives of these two failed companies receive multi-million dollar pay packages and bonuses -- all courtesy of the American taxpayer -- is a continuing outrage.  The reports that surfaced recently that corrective action may finally be taken by regulators to stop these lavish pay packages in the future are welcome, but long overdue.  Congress can and should ensure taxpayer money no longer goes to fund these liberal compensation packages and extravagant bonuses by passing H.R. 1221,” said Chairman Bachus.

“The taxpayer-funded bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is the biggest bailout in history.  Forcing taxpayers to fund these excessive salaries and bonuses just adds insult to injury,” Chairman Bachus added.

The CEO of Fannie Mae received $5.6 million in compensation last year and the CEO of Freddie Mac received $5.4 million.  In addition to their compensation, the CEOs received some of the $12.79 million in bonus pay that was awarded by the Federal Housing Finance Agency to the top 10 executives of the two government-sponsored enterprises.

Under the Bachus proposal, the top executives of the GSEs could have earned no more than $218,978 in compensation and would receive no bonus pay.