Senate Republicans urge FHFA to “abandon” equitable finance plans

Federal Issues FHFA U.S. Senate Freddie Mac Fannie Mae GSEs Consumer Finance Underserved Mortgages

On July 19, twelve Republican Senators wrote a letter to FHFA Director Sandra Thompson expressing their “many significant concerns” about “race-based housing subsidies” in the recently released Equitable Housing Finance Plans for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (GSEs). As previously covered by InfoBytes, in June, the GSEs released their Equitable Housing Finance Plans for 2022-2024 (available here and here), affirming their commitment to addressing racial and ethnic disparities in homeownership and wealth. The plans were developed following FHFA’s September 2021 request for public input, which invited comments to help the GSEs prepare their first plans and to aid FHFA in overseeing the plans (covered by InfoBytes here). In the letter, the Senators argued that the plans “raise significant legal concerns,” adding that “no law authorizes FHFA to use a GSE’s assets to pursue affirmative action in housing.” The Senators also wrote that the Biden administration “is conscripting the GSEs as instrumentalities of its progressive racial equity agenda to achieve outcomes it cannot achieve legislatively or even legally.” The Senators urged Thompson to “abandon” the plans and, “in anticipation of litigation challenging the legality” of them, requested that the GSEs “retain all correspondence with FHFA and other records relating to these plans.”