As anticipated, FinServ Chairman Hensarling yesterday announced that he’s ready to deal on a GSE-reform bill to get one passed while he’s still both chairman of the committee and a member of the House. At about the same time he delivered his concession offer, the panel’s Housing & Insurance Committee held another hearing at which bipartisan consensus on “new Ginnie” became still clearer. Although much remains to be decided and bipartisanship is always fragile in this time of trial, trouble, and tax reform, the combination of personal incentives, impending GSE draws or of a capital confrontation, and flat-out battle fatigue suggests that 2018 could actually see substantive GSE reform.
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