Signaling a ratcheting up of the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac controversy, a group of high-powered competitors to the secondary mortgage market giants has reloaded for their fight in next year's Congress to rein in the two companies.
FM Policy Focus, formerly known as FM Watch, has hired outgoing Republican National Committee Chairman Edward Gillespie, who will return to his Washington lobbying firm, Quinn, Gillespie & Associates next month. Gillespie will join Hogan & Hartson lobbyist Michael House, a former lobbyist for CUNA Mutual Group, and former Congressman J.C. Watts (R-OK), who served as chairman of the House Republican Conference, in the anti-Fannie and Freddie lobby. The group is backed by Wells Fargo, Genworth Financial (formerly GE Financial) and the Consumer Bankers Association, among others.
