H.R. 1427, Federal Housing Finance Reform Act of 2007
May 17, 2007
Rep. Maxine Waters [D-CA]: Mr. Speaker, I rise to support the rule on this very important piece of legislation and to commend Chairman Frank and the members of the Financial Services Committee for the wonderful work that they have done in getting this important reform measure back to the floor of this House.
As it was said earlier, and I will simply repeat, that this is a good rule. This is a rule that has opened up opportunities for those who have amendments to get those amendments before the floor. As Mr. Frank said, there are more amendments that are being allowed on this bill today than were allowed on the bill that came before the House last year on the reform of these GSEs.
This is an important piece of legislation where a lot of work has been done to get a consensus about how to reform the GSEs and to open up more opportunities for those who need to be supported on the secondary market for mortgages.
This is important because we have had a lot of fights in the Congress of the United States about the GSEs. There were those who for many, many months simply defended the GSEs. We were frightened that we would lose this important resource, and we were suspicious of accusations that were being made about the way that they managed the GSEs, and we did not go along with some of the changes that were being recommended some time ago.
But we have all worked very hard and we have compromised. Not only have the defenders of the GSEs decided that it was time for strong regulation and that OFHEO had indeed not done the job and given the oversight that they should have given, we also looked very closely at what was going on with the FM Watch organization that had been created. And while we will agree that there were those in the financial services community who thought that the GSEs were creeping into the retail market, and we still believe that some of what was done was all about potential competition, the one thing that we have agreed on is this.
The GSEs are extremely important. They were organized to provide these opportunities to support them on the secondary market, and we cannot lose it, and there were some management problems. There were some accounting problems. Many careers have been destroyed in all of the fighting that has gone on. OFHEO has been dismantled. We have come up with good regulation and oversight, and it is time for us to move forward and not to simply oppose this bill and this rule because we think one has to be the loyal opposition, opposing whatever comes to the floor.
It's time to recognize that if we want to do something about creating and supporting housing opportunities, if we want to deal with what is happening in the subprime market, if we understand what we're going through in America today, with all of these foreclosures, with people being very frightened about whether or not they are going to be able to hold on to their home, if we understand all of this, we will move very quickly, not only to support the rule but to support the bill and a very important aspect of this bill, and that is the housing trust fund.
How can you be against helping Americans who just want a little piece of the American dream, to be able to own a home? We need to supply more spots. We need more housing. We need to build affordable housing. We're not taking any money away from our general fund. We're not taking any of the revenue that is being counted on to be used for other things in this huge budget. This is new money. This is money that's created from the after-profit taxes of these GSEs. It does not threaten our budget at all.
How can you be against building new affordable homes for people who need it all over this country, not just in the cities but in the towns and in the suburbs and certainly in the rural communities? We have people who are living in homes that are not fit for humans to live in. We have people still in some places in the deep South that don't have toilets and running water. We have folks who are living in some of the housing and trailers that are falling apart. We need the housing trust fund. We need this reform. We need this rule, and I would ask support for it all.
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Contact: Mikael Moore
202-225-2201
