WASHINGTON–The House Financial Services Committee plans to introduce legislation to overhaul the role of government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the U.S. mortgage market in the first quarter of 2026, according to a new report.
Rep. Mike Flood (R-NE), who chairs the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance, told Punchbowl News the panel plans to tackle one of the thorniest policy issues in financial services in the new year.
Fannie and Freddie were placed into conservatorship during the financial crisis of more than a decade ago and have since generated significant profits for the federal government, which is the primary reason returning them to private ownership has been slow going.
“There’s going to be GSE discussions happening in our subcommittee for Q1 next year,” Flood said.
Punchbowl News noted that President Donald Trump made big headlines in May when he announced his desire to take the GSEs “public.”
Congress to Play Role
“But Flood, along with House Financial Services Committee Chair French Hill (R-AK), continues to emphasize that Congress must play a role in releasing the GSEs from government conservatorship,” Punchbowl News reported.
Flood told Punchbowl News that Congress can help smooth off the edges of any bumpy transitions for the mortgage market.
“There’s this idea that the administration can do a lot of the heavy lifting,” Flood told the news outlet. “What I’d like to remind people is that rates are a little higher than they have been in the last five years. Any injection of uncertainty into capital for home purchases is going to rattle people.”
‘One Big Nut’ to Crack
The report noted there is “one big nut” for lawmakers to tackle when it comes to the GSEs, and that is whether they will continue to be backstopped by the federal government.
“Trump himself has said the GSEs will ‘keep’ the government’s implicit guarantee, but it’s far from clear what that would mean in practice,” the report stated.
