First in The Vault: Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) will travel to Michigan next week for a fundraiser on behalf of Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-Mich.), according to an invite we obtained.
Jordan will appear alongside Huizenga in Hudsonville, Mich., on Monday as a special guest.
Huizenga, of course, is one of several lawmakers on the House Financial Services Committee vying to be the panel’s next top Republican. Jordan is a powerful committee chair who briefly ran for speaker in the aftermath of Kevin McCarthy’s ouster. Among House Republicans, Jordan has about as much clout as any lawmaker outside of leadership.
Jordan’s office said his visit to help Huizenga is in line with the Ohio Republican’s ongoing efforts to boost every member of the GOP conference.
“Chairman Jordan is focused on helping his colleagues across the country in order to expand our majority and get President Trump elected,” said Russell Dye, Jordan’s spokesperson.
We wrote about Jordan’s escalated efforts this Congress to help candidates and incumbents across the country. We see it as a strong potential indicator of the lawmaker’s future ambitions.
First in The Vault, Part II: Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) sent a letter to Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Sandra Thompson this week urging the agency to rethink its approach to single-family closed-end second mortgages.
The letter, which was also signed by Reps. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) and Steven Horsford (D-Nev.), told Thompson the lawmakers were concerned that an FHFA proposal from April to begin purchasing those types of mortgages “risks unfairly widening the gap between underserved households, including communities of color, and wealthier homeowners.”
The FHFA argued back in April that their approach would “provide borrowers a lower cost alternative to a cash-out refinance in higher interest rate environments.”
Read the letter here.
