Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., has issued a public request to Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., to convene a hearing of the House Financial Services Committee to determine whether Fannie Mae executives improperly implemented the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) in order to benefit from incentive payments offered by the Treasury Department for mortgage modifications.
Bachus, a ranking member of the committee, also called for testimony from officials at Fannie Mae and the Federal Housing Finance Agency and Caroline Herron, a former Fannie Mae executive who filed a lawsuit alleging that she was fired after she was openly critical of the HAMP endeavors.
‘These allegations are of particular concern, not only because taxpayers have invested more than $85 billion in Fannie Mae to offset its losses, but also because it is being reported that the administration might order the government-controlled mortgage finance company to forgive many Americans' mortgage debts later this month,’ Bachus said. ‘If true, it would help explain why HAMP has been such a failure. It would mean that thanks to Fannie Mae's executives' misfeasance, particularly a preoccupation with short-term financial gain, HAMP was only able to permanently modify about 230,000 mortgages, instead of the 3 million modifications that the Obama administration promised.’
SOURCE: Office of Rep. Spencer Bachus
