Look for lawmakers during the 113th Congress to bring considerable attention and legislative effort to bear regarding the future of housing and mortgage finance, but reform and resolution of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are far from the top of the priority lists of the two major committees with purview over the GSEs. This week, the House Financial Services Committee in the Republican-held House and the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee of the Democrat-majority Senate issued their respective agendas for the 2013-2014 session. Sen. Tim Johnson, D-SD, said the Banking Committee will “continue to seek bipartisan consensus” on a new structure for housing finance.

Two Democrat Senators have re-introduced their refinance bill that would authorize a one-year extension of the Home Affordable Refinance Program while easing other qualifying criteria for HARP borrowers. Dubbed HARP 3.0 in some quarters, the Responsible Homeowner Refinancing Act of 2013, the bill by Sen. Robert Menendez, D-NJ, -- co-sponsored by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-CA, -- would expand HARP eligibility by providing equal access to streamlined refinancing under HARP, waive loan-to-value ratio requirements and prohibit Fannie and Freddie from charging upfront fees to refi any loan they guarantee. The new draft of the Menendez-Boxer, S. 249, includes a few technical corrections and would extend HARP for an additional 12 months beyond its scheduled expiration of Dec. 31, 2013.

FHA Commissioner Carol Galante fended off attacks by Republicans on the House Financial Services Committee this week, saying that the actual performance of the FHA single-family program over the course of FY 2013 and steps the agency takes during this period will determine whether the agency will need more cash to pay claims. In her first congressional appearance since her Senate confirmation in late December, Galante tried to assure critics that the FHA may not have to borrow from the U.S. Treasury to boost its claims-paying ability if the proposed budget President Obama releases next month does not show a shortfall. In last year’s proposed 2012 budget, the president anticipated...

It remains to be seen how or whether a newly signed law in Illinois to fast-track certain foreclosures will impact a proposal by the Federal Housing Finance Agency to levy extra guaranty fee charges on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgages originated in five slow-foreclosure states, including Illinois, but experts say other states may be inspired to follow suit. Last week, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn, D, signed into law SB 16, which among other provisions, would allow servicers to expedite the foreclosure timelines for abandoned or vacant homes from about 18 months to as little as 90 days. Although the bill was...

A deeply divided House Financial Services Committee took on FHA solvency this week as critics and defenders clashed over the agency’s practices, financial health and future role in the nation’s housing market. The distinctly partisan tone of the hearing quickly raised doubt as to whether the Republican majority and their Democratic opponents can come to some compromise to strengthen the FHA and reduce its risk to taxpayers. Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-TX, echoed complaints by Republican colleagues that the FHA is ...

Responding to industry concerns over the impact of the new loan officer compensation final rule on reverse mortgages, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has clarified the phrase “amount of credit extended” for closed-end Home Equity Conversion Mortgage loans. For closed-end reverse mortgages, a loan originator’s compensation may be based on either (a) the maximum proceeds available to the consumer under the loan; (b) the maximum claim amount (if the loan is subject to the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s HECM rules); or (c) the appraised value of the property, as determined by ...

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill this week mulled over how to strengthen the shaky financial condition of the FHA single-family insurance fund and reduce the risk to taxpayers of another government bailout, while shrinking the agency’s market footprint without disrupting the market’s fragile recovery. Partisan differences were immediately on display, predictably, as Republicans slammed the agency while Democrats defended it. “If the FHA was...

Republican critics of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are maneuvering to take advantage of a sudden opportunity to push for changes to the leadership structure and the finances of the bureau, after a surprise legal ruling breathed new life into their long-running struggle to clip the new agencyfs wings. Last month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled in Noel Canning v. National Labor Relations Board that three recess appointments President Obama made to the NLRB were unconstitutional because the Senate was technically not in recess at the time they were made. Industry lawyers believe...

HARP 3.0 Status Update: Democrats in both the Senate and the White House are warming up efforts to expand government-backed refinance programs in order to assist underwater homeowners whose mortgages are packaged into non-agency securities. Repurposed refi proposals from last year are poised to be re-introduced in the 113th Congress with the active and vocal support of the Treasury Department, which may enact its own initiative if lawmakers can’t or won’t pass a measure. “We must expand...

Wall Street’s ability to hide and disguise significant risk through the abuse of derivatives and other “novel financial products” would be greatly reduced under a proposed modernization of tax rules issued last week by the Republican head of a top House committee. The “discussion draft” released by House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Dave Camp, R-MI, would revamp, among other things, the tax treatment of bonds traded at a discount or premium on the secondary market, increase the accuracy of determining gains and losses on securities sales and prevent harvesting of tax losses on securities. “Updating these tax rules to reflect modern developments in financial products will make...