The Biden administration isn't wasting any time. Mere hours after the Supreme Court ruled that the structure of the Federal Housing Finance Agency is unconstitutional, the White House announced that they're replacing FHFA Director Mark Calabria, a holdover from the Trump administration.
Calabria first took over as director of the FHFA, the federal agency charged with overseeing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, back in April 2019. His appointment reignited talks of ending conservatorship as he was charged with laying out a constructive path for mortgage finance reform.
But it's going to take more than two years as director of the FHFA to create significant movement in GSE reform.
In Collins v. Yellen, the high court ruled that the president should be able to remove directors who disobey commands, those he/she finds "negligent and inefficient," those who have "different views of policy" and "those who come from a competing political party who is dead set against [the president's] agenda."
The White House doesn't have a replacement for Calabria yet, but that's not stopping them from replacing "the current Director with an appointee who reflects the Administration's values" before the end of today.
As Senior Mortgage Reporter Georgia Kromrei wrote: "After the Supreme Court decision, few rose to defend Calabria, a Trump-appointee whose recent actions have drawn ire from many corners of the mortgage industry. Trade associations, housing advocate groups and Washington, D.C. insiders urged the Biden administration to replace Calabria without delay."
Former MBA CEO Dave Stevens and Bill Cosgrove, former chairman of the MBA, said in an op-ed published today: "Mark Calabria, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, must go. He is slowly but surely undermining the system he has been charged to oversee, imposing his ideological will on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in a way that will leave them weaker, and the housing finance system that depends on them increasingly unable to meet the critical housing needs of the nation."
After a Supreme Court ruling paved the way for the Biden administration to fire Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mark Calabria at will, President Joe Biden is taking swift action.
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In this opinion piece, David Stevens and Bill Cosgrove write that Calabria's fundamental misunderstanding of the mortgage market is weakening Fannie and Freddie and will cripple the housing market.
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