FHFA Director Calabria and HUD Secretary Carson today reviewed post-COVID policy before a Senate Banking Committee highlighted by growing partisan divides. During the often heated hearing, Chairman Crapo (R-ID) applauded FHFA’s capital proposal as “thorough” and “thoughtful,” making it clear that legislation to block it will not advance. While Ranking Member Brown (D-OH) targeted much of his ire at Secretary Carson’s fair-housing policies, he also said that Director Calabria’s housing reform plan would disproportionately hurt communities of color without providing specific concerns. Sen. Warner (D-VA) opposes the U.S. government walking away from its senior preferred stock in the GSEs without compensation; Mr. Calabria agreed that the government should be reimbursed “fairly,” but stressed that this is up to Treasury. Although a question or two was posed on servicer stability, Mr. Calabria asserted that it is resilient and Senate calls for a new liquidity facility were not revisited today. Mr. Calabria also promised renewed legislative recommendations next week to provide FHFA with authority similar to that of other independent federal financial regulators.
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