WASHINGTON - A House Financial Services subcommittee has scheduled a hearing for Wednesday on a controversial Congressional Budget Office report that estimates the federal government's subsidy to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac at $10.6 billion.
The hearing will be the second by Rep. Richard Baker, chairman of the subcommittee with jurisdiction over the government-sponsored enterprises, on the CBO report. It has sparked controversy over the two government-sponsored mortgage financiers. Fannie and Freddie have said that the report grossly inflates the subsidy and fails to consider the benefits other financial services companies get from the federal government.
Also on the hearing agenda is a bill that Rep. Baker introduced in May to put Fannie and Freddie under the Federal Reserve Board's supervision. The Louisiana Republican has criticized the GSEs as benefiting unfairly from $2.25 billion of emergency "lines of credit" with the Treasury Department, tax exemptions, and other government protections.
The list of witnesses for the hearing was not announced.
