News: The House Financial Services Committee plans to introduce legislation to overhaul the role of government-sponsored enterprises in the U.S. mortgage market in the first quarter of 2026.
Rep. Mike Flood (R-Neb.), who chairs the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance, said in an interview that the panel would dive into one of the thorniest policy issues on the financial services beat in the new year.
“There’s going to be GSE discussions happening in our subcommittee for Q1 next year,” Flood said.
The Art of Article 1: Most of the chatter around Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has revolved around the Trump administration this year. Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte has taken on an unusually prominent role in financial politics, and President Donald Trump made big headlines in May when he announced his desire to take the GSEs “public.”
But Flood, along with House Financial Services Committee Chair French Hill (R-Ark.), continues to emphasize that Congress must play a role in releasing the GSEs from government conservatorship.
Congress, Flood argues, 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 said. “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.”
The policy: We asked Flood what needs to happen for the GSEs to be released from conservatorship to minimize mortgage instability.
Flood said member education was a big piece of the puzzle, himself included. And the dynamics here are tricky.
“You’ve gotta remember: I’m learning with people that have ideas about what should happen with GSE reform, and they’re also shareholders,” Flood said. “You’re playing with big chips on the table. Everybody’s connected to this machine.”
There’s also one big nut for lawmakers to crack here — whether the GSEs will continue to be backstopped by the federal government. That’s been the case since Fannie and Freddie were taken into conservatorship during the 2008 financial crisis.
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.
Flood and other House Republicans want to have a conversation about whether reform can take “the full faith and credit of the United States off the hook at the end of the day.”
“Everybody still wants the implicit guarantee,” Flood said. “It is the big question.”
