On May 12, Reps. John Campbell (R-CA) and Gary Peters (D-MI) introduced legislation (H.R. 1859) that would place Fannie Mae and Freddie Mae in formal receivership; wind down their portfolios within five years; and replace them with several private companies that would issue mortgage-backed securities with explicit federal guarantees.

The bill would provide an explicit guarantee to any conventional mortgage securitized by these private entities. Manufactured home loans would be considered “conventional mortgages.” However, more work needs to be done to distinguish loans secured by personal property versus those secured by real property. It is the first bipartisan GSE reform bill to be proposed this year.

The bill comes ahead of another round of reforms Rep. Scott Garrett (R-NJ) is expected to release, shortly. Click here for more information. Garrett serves as chairman of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Capital Markets and Government Sponsored Enterprises, which recently marked up eight bills reforming the GSEs (for more information, click here).

The measure is also in direct conflict with the goals of the full House Financial Services Committee Chairman Spencer Bachus (R-AL) who has said his objective is to move legislation (H.R. 1182) sponsored by Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-TX) that would fully privatize the GSEs within five years.

In addition, it is rumored that Rep. Gary Miller (R-CA) could introduce another bipartisan bill that would expedite the end of federal conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and establish a sustainable federal secondary market facility for residential mortgages that is financed by private capital.

For more information on the Campbell-Peters bill, click here and for additional information on recent GSE reform activities of the House Financial Services Committee, click here.

For additional information, members can contact Jason Boehlert at 703-558-0660 or jboehlert@mfghome.org.