Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Johnson, D-S.D., and Ranking Member Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, agreed to a short recess of a markup of S. 1217, the Housing Finance Reform and Taxpayer Protection Act of 2013, to allow for more time to broaden bipartisan support.
“While I do not relish the idea of a short delay, I am pleased that a number of Senators believe with just a brief period of additional time to consider it, they will have the opportunity to productively join us in efforts to reform the current system,” Crapo said. “I look forward to working with my colleagues in the coming days, to listening to their questions or concerns to help us find a bipartisan consensus with even stronger votes.”
In March, Johnson and Crapo announced that they had reached an agreement on a housing finance reform proposal. Last fall, the committee hosted an in-depth series of hearings exploring essential elements necessary for reform, and over the course of the beginning of this year, they negotiated and drafted the bipartisan reform proposal.
Johnson and Crapo agreed to use S.1217, the Housing Finance Reform and Taxpayer Protection Act of 2013, as the base text of the housing reform. The bill was introduced in the Senate by Senators Mark Warner, D-Va., and Bob Corker, R-Tenn., in June 2013.
Johnson and Crapo’s proposal was designed to protect taxpayers from bearing the cost of a housing downturn; promote stable, liquid and efficient mortgage markets for single-family and multifamily housing; ensure that affordable, 30-year, fixed-rate, prepayable mortgages continue to be available, and that affordability remains an important consideration; provide equal access for lenders of all sizes to the secondary market; and facilitate broad availability of mortgage credit for eligible borrowers in all areas and for single family and multifamily housing types.
The markup for the housing finance reform legislation was set for April 29, but some of the committee members requested more time to continue to work on finding additional common ground.
“We will now move to the consideration of S. 1217, the Housing Finance Reform and Taxpayer Protection Act of 2014. This legislation, offered by Senators Corker and Warner along with a number of our other colleagues on this committee, would wind down Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and reform the housing finance system,” Johnson said.
“While we have the votes to report the bill out today, members of the committee have asked for a brief delay to try to work out additional issues prior to a final vote,” he continued. “To allow time for those discussions to be completed, we will shortly recess the executive session subject to the call of the Chair.”
Johnson indicated that the markup should happen in the next couple of days.
“We have the opportunity to fix our flawed system and set up a more efficient, sustainable, permanent housing finance system that will provide future economic opportunities for millions of families and individuals,” Crapo said. “I look forward to moving this legislation one step closer to that goal.”