WASHINGTON-Arguably the most outspoken, staunchly conservative member of the House Financial Services Committee, Rep. Jeb Hensarling appears eager to help shape the panel's agenda next year.
Put succinctly, the Texas Republican's goal is to peel the government out of the market in as many places as possible, including eliminating Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, reforming the Federal Housing Administration and overhauling the Dodd-Frank regulatory reform act.
"I am concerned with politicizing the market. I want to get the government out of corporate governance decisions," Hensarling said in a recent interview about his priorities for next year. "I have got lots of energy and lots of time, and by the standards of Congress, I'm relatively young and relatively passionate. ... Frankly I think we are going to be very, very busy."
Hensarling, the top Republican on the panel's financial institutions subcommittee and the No. 2 GOP member of the Budget Committee, has shot through party ranks as a prominent conservative leader recognized for his zeal to reduce government and slash spending. Hensarling is against just about every financial services policy to emerge from Washington in the last several years, including the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the Credit CARD Act and the Dodd-Frank Act. He calls the Community Reinvestment Act a relic of a bygone era and said he would "absolutely" consider sending it to the chopping block.
