(DCNF)—Mortgage company Fannie Mae is bringing workers back to their Washington, D.C., Reston, Va. and Plano, Texas offices Monday in an attempt to avoid Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) director Bill Pulte’s executive cuts following layoffs at its sister company, Freddie Mac.
Pulte, nominated by President Donald Trump to lead the FHFA and confirmed by the Senate on March 13, wasted no time laying off executives at the mortgage associations the FHFA oversees. Pulte fired Freddie Mac’s head of human resources Dionne Wallace Oakley, Executive Vice President of Corporate Strategy and External Affairs Craig Phillips and the chief operating officer on Thursday while also replacing CEO Diana Reid with interim CEO Mike Hutchins, according to a Semafor report.
Freddie Mac workers were reportedly told to return to offices May 1, but following the executive cuts at the corporation, one Fannie Mae employee told Semafor, “I think the hope is if we appease [Pulte] with this then he won’t look to ‘DOGE’ us as much.”
Soon after entering office, Trump established the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) which he tasked with rooting out waste, fraud and abuse of taxpayer funds within the federal government. The initiative has thus far led to thousands of employees being placed on leave, the reevaluation of federal contracts, foreign aid, federally-funded research and more. Several agencies have had their workforce and authority gutted by the administration.
Despite Fannie Mae’s employee count reaching 7,700, there are only 5,300 available office seats for employees when they return to in-person work, according to a Semafor report. It’s unclear if staff cuts will be made following the return to offices.
Fannie Mae did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
The same day Pulte fired Freddie Mac executives, he also placed FHFA Chief Operating Officer Gina Cross and Human Resources Director Monica Matthews on administrative leave, according to Politico. Moreover, over a dozen employees have been placed on administrative leave at the agency, The Wall Street Journal reported.
https://twitter.com/pulte/status/1901400362944282838
Pulte also appointed himself to chair of both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s boards after firing 14 members earlier this week, Politico reported. The move comes as the administration is reportedly weighing an executive order on housing that would direct departments to look into privatization options for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, according to an official who spoke with the WSJ. The step to evaluate different methods for privatization is intended to protect borrowers, as privatization risks investors demanding higher premiums which would increase borrowers’ mortgage rates. The administration sees the reprivatization of the corporations as a potential strategy to reduce the country’s deficit and return funds to taxpayers.
The move to consider reprivatization, however, has received some opposition from Democratic lawmakers. The Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Scott Turner was recently sent a letter signed by 11 Democratic Senators raising concerns regarding his plan to re-privatize the two firms, stating that if the process were “mismanaged” it could make mortgages more expensive for Americans.
“Changes to the ownership of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would be a monumental undertaking that would affect our entire housing system and touch the lives of homeowners and renters across the country,” the Senators wrote. “If mismanaged, ending the conservatorships and Treasury’s role with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could make mortgages more expensive, cut off access to mortgage credit, destroy many of the important reforms made over the past 16 years, and compromise our entire housing market and the broader U.S. economy.”
Turner previously said he would work alongside the Treasury Department and Congress to privatize the mortgage-finance firms in a February interview with the Wall Street Journal. “There are partners that will be at the table and obviously we’ll be one of them,” said Turner, a former NFL player and Texas lawmaker. “When you’re a quarterback, you’ve got to work with the entire huddle.”
Although Turner hasn’t expanded much on the origin of his desire to free Fannie and Freddie from their government hold, it’s clear the process will take significant collaboration between the Treasury Department, Congress and FHFA.
Freddie and Fannie were previously privately owned but came under government conservatorship during the 2008 financial crisis after the U.S. Treasury Department got warrants to purchase roughly 80% of the corporation’s common shares. Now, the two mortgage giants stand behind about half of the U.S. residential mortgage market.
Freddie Mac and the FHFA did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
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