The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs has scheduled three more hearings related to housing finance reform for the week of November 18. These will be the eighth, ninth, and tenth hearings that the Banking Committee has held on housing finance reform this fall. Committee Chairman Tim Johnson (D-SD) and Ranking Member (R-ID) are working on a bipartisan bill to wind down and replace Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. They hope to reach agreement on a bill by the end of 2013.
Their bill is expected to include the NHTF about which NLIHC President and CEO Sheila Crowley testified on November 7 (see Memo, 11/8).
The next hearing, scheduled for Tuesday, November 19, will be on “Housing Finance Reform: Fundamentals of Transferring Credit Risk in a Future Housing Finance System.” Scheduled witnesses are Wanda DeLeo of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Ted Durant of the Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corporation, Ajay Rajadhyaksha of Barclays, and Lauren Goodman of the Housing Finance Policy Center at the Urban Institute.
The hearing on Thursday, November 21, is entitled “Powers and Structure of a Strong Regulator.” Scheduled witnesses are Alfred Pollard of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Diane Ellis of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Kurt Regner on behalf of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, Bart Dzivi of the Dzivi Law Firm, P.C., Robber Couch on behalf of the Bipartisan Policy Center Housing Commission, and Paul Leonard of the Housing Policy Council of the Financial Services Roundtable.
The third hearing of the week, “Developing a Plan for a Smooth Transition,” will be held on Friday, November 22. Scheduled witnesses are James Millstein of Millstein & Co., John Bovenzi of Oliver Wyman, and David Min of the University of California, Irvine School of Law.
All the hearings begin at 10am and will be held in room 538 of the Dirksen Senate office building.