Biden’s FHFA nominee Sandra Thompson has made it clear that the agency can’t end the conservatorships without help from the Departments of Treasury and Justice and, most importantly, Congress itself.

The GSEs will have to find ways to better serve the rural housing, manufactured housing and affordable housing preservation markets.

If the Senate fails to resolve the debt ceiling in time, the federal government’s credit rating will likely be downgraded to “restricted default.” So, too, will the ratings on GSE debt.

If it gets through the Senate in its current form, the Build Back Better bill could have several budgetary impacts on the housing finance industry.

The fee, passed a decade ago to help pay for a temporary payroll tax cut, expired Oct. 1. Democrats resurrected it for another decade to help pay for infrastructure priorities.

Despite early criticism of Senate plans to use the 10-basis-point g-fee to help pay for a bipartisan infrastructure bill, industry groups have been more muted since the text of the bill became public.

Big-league housing groups, including the Mortgage Bankers Association and the National Association of Realtors, warned senators not to use the g-fee as “the nation’s piggybank.”

One unintended consequence of the court ruling: The Biden administration got the greenlight to reform the GSEs without the help of Congress.

Craig Phillips, senior counselor to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, recounts the Trump administration’s difficulties in ending the net worth sweep and the conservatorships.

Veteran analyst Dick Bove says tapering by the Federal Reserve and meddling by the FHFA will eventually force the Biden administration to address housing-finance reform.