Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Required To Continue Paying Annual Dividends

A U.S. House Financial Services subcommittee today unanimously approved legislation authored by Congressman Don Manzullo (R-Egan) that would require Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to continue paying annual dividends back to the US Treasury to ensure the “ringleaders” of the housing crisis keep paying off their debt to American taxpayers. 

The Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Taxpayer Payback Act of 2011 (H.R. 2436) prohibits the Treasury Department from reducing the 10 percent dividend payment Fannie and Freddie currently make annually to reimburse taxpayers for the hundreds of billions of bailout dollars the mortgage giants received to date. Fannie and Freddie are considered Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs).  The Manzullo bill could be on the House floor in the near future as part of a larger Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac reform package. 

“Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were directly involved in the housing collapse and their actions have placed American taxpayers on the hook for up to $1 trillion in losses,” Manzullo said. “Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac must continue to pay their debts back to taxpayers, and I thank my colleagues on the Financial Services Committee for including my bill in this reform package that will continue to hold Fannie and Freddie’s feet to the fire.”

Since 2000, Manzullo has been fighting Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for what he considers illegal and unethical practices, such as cooking the books to get higher bonuses for the officers, and fraudulently using lobbyists and fake surveys to fight reform. In 2000, 2003 and 2005, he co-sponsored legislation that would have required higher capital requirements for Fannie and Freddie so the housing crisis would not have occurred, at least not to the current extent. Manzullo exposed some of Fannie and Freddie’s unethical practices during several Financial Services Committee hearings. Click here to view highlights of one of those hearings from 2004.