As leaders of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee continue their slow but steady efforts to craft a comprehensive, bipartisan mortgage finance reform bill, experts generally agreed on the necessity for some sort of government backstop for MBS but differed on the details. This week’s hearing was the first of several planned by Committee Chairman Tim Johnson, D-SD, and Ranking Member Mike Crapo, R-ID, as they work to build out their own reform legislation on top of the bill, S. 1217, filed earlier this year by Sens. Bob Corker, R-TN, and Mark Warner, D-VA. Johnson said...