During a hearing Thursday to receive an international and domestic policy update from U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, Senator Bob Corker expressed optimism about the prospects of congressional action on housing finance reform.
“It’s my sense that you’re strongly committed to finally dealing with housing finance reform in an appropriate way, is that correct?” asked Senator Corker.
“That is correct, and I hope that’s something we can do on bipartisan basis,” replied Mr.
Mnuchin.
“The only real way to do that is through congressional action,” continued Senator Corker. “Is that correct?”
“My strong preference is to do it through congressional action and working with you and your colleagues,” answered Secretary Mnuchin. “I will say that, obviously, the Treasury has a lot of exposure and taxpayers are at risk, but my strong preference is to do it exactly as you’ve described.”
In closing, Senator Corker thanked Mr. Mnuchin for his interest in housing finance reform and expressed his desire to complete the last major piece of unfinished business from the 2008 financial crisis.
“I feel for the first time a real opportunity to align not just the interest of U.S. taxpayers and the fact that we want to have a housing finance system that is robust but also, in fairness, one that more fully aligns the public sector interest and the private sector interest,” concluded Senator Corker. “I look forward to hopefully completing the work that… really should have been front and center on financial reform when we did it in 2010. And I want to thank you for your concern, your interest and, hopefully, involvement in bringing this to a close.”