http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article...ried-reform-freddie-and-fannie-five-years-ago
Bush Administration Tried to Reform Freddie and Fannie Five Years Ago
By | February 19, 2009 | 10:40 AM EST
A Google search brings up the following
Sept. 11, 2003 New York Times article, which shows the Bush administration was aware of potential lending problems and did try to do something about it:
The Bush administration today recommended the most significant regulatory overhaul in the housing finance industry since the savings and loan crisis a decade ago.
Under the plan, disclosed at a Congressional hearing today, a new agency would be created within the Treasury Department to assume supervision of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored companies that are the two largest players in the mortgage lending industry.
The new agency would have the authority, which now rests with Congress, to set one of the two capital-reserve requirements for the companies. It would exercise authority over any new lines of business. And it would determine whether the two are adequately managing the risks of their ballooning portfolios.
The plan is an acknowledgment by the administration that oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- which together have issued more than $1.5 trillion in outstanding debt -- is broken. A report by outside investigators in July concluded that Freddie Mac manipulated its accounting to mislead investors, and critics have said Fannie Mae does not adequately hedge against rising interest rates.
But yeah, blame Bush. Or maybe.... those obstructionist democrats
Rep. Gregory Meeks, a New York Democrat, said at that Sept. 25, 2003 House Financial Services Committee hearing that he was “pissed off at OFHEO (Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight),” because of the agency’s suggestion that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should be regulated more closely. A number of other Democrats agreed there was no need for reform.
