Earlier this week, January 16, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, D-CA, Chairwoman of the House Committee on Financial Services, delivered her first policy speech in the 116th Congress. Excerpted below, are her comments on the government sponsored enterprises, causes of the financial crisis and her core principles for housing.
The committee also has a responsibility to look at our housing finance system and address the fates of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government sponsored enterprises. The GSEs have been in government conservatorship for more than a decade.
Contrary to Republican claims, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac did not cause the financial crisis. The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission and others have made that clear. The financial crisis was driven by predatory lending, the private market packaging those toxic, risky loans into securities and then selling those securities to unsuspecting investors.
Fannie and Freddie did not drive those actions, but the events that transpired during the crisis made clear the need for their reform. When it comes to housing finance reform, I have advocated for core principles that I believe should be part of legislative efforts to address the future of housing finance reform.
The principles include the following:
- Maintaining access to the 30-year fixed rate mortgage;
- Ensuring sufficient private capital is in place to protect taxpayers;
- Providing stability and liquidity so that we can withstand any future financial crisis;
- Ensuring a smooth transition to a new finance system;
- Requiring transparency and standardization in a way that ensures a level playing field for all financial institutions, especially credit unions and community banks;
- Maintaining access for all qualified borrowers that can sustain homeownership and serving homeowners of the future; and
- Ensuring access to affordable rental housing.
It is particularly important to ensure that underserved borrowers and communities are not overlooked. This means housing finance reform will need to include a comprehensive strategy around access to affordable mortgage credit, as well as access to affordable rental housing.
Also important for housing access is the rigorous enforcement of our fair-housing laws. Unfortunately, our fight to make progress on fair housing has become much more challenging under the Trump Administration. Let’s not forget that President Trump himself was sued by the government for serious violations of the Fair Housing Act. Under Trump’s leadership, the affirmatively furthering fair housing mandate under the Fair Housing Act was badly undercut when Secretary Carson halted implementation of the Obama administration’s affirmatively furthering fair housing rule.
In fact, Secretary Carson once likened the rule to a “failed social experiment.” Secretary Carson has also reportedly proposed taking the words “free from discrimination” out of HUD’s mission statement. He also reportedly halted several fair housing investigations, and sidelined top advisors in HUD’s Office of Fair Housing Enforcement. These are unprecedented attacks on fair housing that we will not stand for.
To that end, in addition to conducting robust oversight of the Trump Administration’s activities at HUD, I will be reintroducing the Restoring Fair Housing Protections Act, my bill to reverse the harmful steps taken by Secretary Carson and the Trump Administration to undermine fair housing. I promise to continue to stand up for fair housing opportunities for all people.
