White House seeks removal of Fannie regulator

Financial Times

October 24, 2012 4:37 pm

By Shahien Nasiripour in Washington

In July, when Edward DeMarco refused to implement a debt-reduction scheme championed by the White House, Tim Geithner, US Treasury secretary, accused him of making a decision that ran contrary to the best interests of the nation.

It was one of a number of decisions taken by the Washington career bureaucrat which have stymied the Obama administration’s most aggressive efforts to boost the US property market, by blocking refinancings and forgiveness of troubled borrowers’ mortgages.

But if Mr Obama wins re-election, Mr DeMarco’s days may be numbered, with senior White House officials quietly telling housing industry activists in recent weeks that he will be replaced.

He temporarily was named acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency in August 2009 by Barack Obama, US president, after the previous director left for the private sector.

He is still there three years later, despite clashes with the White House and the Treasury department over various administration proposals to aid the housing market.

In 2010, Senate Republicans opposed Mr Obama’s choice to replace Mr DeMarco and have since said they would be unwilling to support other candidates who support principal reduction schemes. Administration officials have argued there are few qualified candidates willing to take the demanding position.

Some borrower advocates have argued that the White House has kept Mr DeMarco in office in part because it provides the administration with an easy excuse when questioned about why they have not done more to prevent millions of home seizures.

But in the past few weeks, Obama administration officials – including Gene Sperling, director of Mr Obama’s national economic council, and Jon Carson, director of the White House’s office of public engagement – have told Democratic groups that they hope to oust Mr DeMarco in the coming months, most likely by replacing him via an appointment while Congress is not in session, according to people familiar with the matter.

Administration officials have asked housing groups to supply a list of potential candidates. Officials made their statements most recently on September 13 during a White House housing summit.

The White House is weighing how and when to make a so-called “recess” appointment, which would bypass the congressional approval that is traditionally sought for presidential nominees.

For example, after it was clear that Republican lawmakers would not support the confirmation of Richard Cordray to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Mr Obama chose to install him in the post using a recess appointment.

The White House and the FHFA declined to comment. Mr DeMarco also declined to comment.
Mr DeMarco sets policies and approves strategic business decisions for companies whose market share allows him to influence everything from what kinds of loans are made to how companies deal with troubled borrowers who fall behind on their payments.

Obama administration officials and...

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San Francisco Ballot Measures

San Francisco Rising-  The People’s Voter Guide

Brought to you by SF Rising's member organizations: 
Causa Justa :: Just Cause
, Chinese Progressive Association (CPA), 
Coleman Advocates for Children and Youth, 
Dolores Street Community Services, 
Filipino Community Center (FCC), 
Mujeres Unidas y Activas (MUA), 
People Organized to Win Employment Rights (POWER), 
People Organizing to Demand Environmental and Economic Rights (PODER), 
South of Market Community Action Network (SOMCAN)

San Francisco is becoming increasingly unaffordable to poor and working class people of color and immigrant communities.  That is why nine community organizations from across the city are working together to make sure our communities have access to good jobs, good schools, public services, and affordable housing.  We are organizing every day in African American, Chinese, Filipino & Latino neighborhoods to build power for our communities!    
 
Standing together, our voices will be heard.       
 
 

The 2012 People’s Slate   
 

San Francisco Ballot Measures   
 

Prop A: YES— Support critical funding to save City College
 

Prop C: YES— Support affordable housing to keep families in San Francisco
 

Prop E: YES— Protect small businesses while raising revenue for city-funded programs
 

Prop G: YES—Corporations are not people and should be held accountable
 

California Ballot Measures
  (For more in-depth analysis click here)

Prop 30: YES— Ensure that millionaires and corporations are paying their fair share, while raising money for our schools
 

Prop 32: NO— Stop the corporate attack on the voices of working families in elections
 

Prop 34: YES— End the death penalty
 

Prop 35: NO— This is badly written legislation that will do more harm than good
 

Prop 36: YES— Reform the "three strikes" law which hurts our communities
 

Prop 38: NO— Stop this competing tax measure that will raise taxes on low-income people
 

Prop 39: YES— Close a business tax loophole and raise funds for clean energy and green jobs
 

For more information about San Francisco Rising, contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

Perez Family Victory!

 

Housing Wins on Both Sides of the Bay

This week in the ongoing battle of the People vs the Banks, the people are winning!

Oakland: Oakland City Staff, Mayor Quan, Congressperson Barbara Lee and State Assembly person Nancy Skinner hosted a press briefing alongside community allies in support of a Comprehensive Foreclosure Prevention Package.  (Check out out CJJC member Manuel De La Paz as he tells how the threat of foreclosure has impacted his family).

On October 16, the plan was approved by the full council, opening up a new avenue of foreclosure help for tenants and homeowners.

Causa Justa and a host of other community organizations have been fighting for years, demanding that the city respond to the foreclosure crisis with local strategies to hold the banks accountable and keep Oakland's tenants and homeowners in their homes.  

The program includes:
•    Outreach to impacted families to connect people to their rights and resources for them to stay in their homes
•    City staff dedicated to monitoring the banks and if they are following new policies from the Homeowner Bill of Rights and regulations from the State Attorney General's Settlement
•    City Staff dedicated to escalate against the Banks on behalf of families struggling to keep their homes
•    A program called ROOT, that will buy back foreclosed homes from banks for homeowners that have been foreclosed on and want to keep their homes
•    Increased city partnerships and resources for legal assistance, counseling services and a one stop Housing Assistance Center that will open up by the end of this year!
CJJC is proud to have worked with our allies to achieve this and thank all of our partners for your work, advocacy and dedication to protecting the right to stay for tenants and homeowners.

Thanks to - City of Oakland, ACCE, OCO, Alameda County Public Health Department, East Bay Housing Organizations, Enterprise Community Partners, Community Housing Development Corp., HERA, LISC, One Pacific Coast Bank, Wells Fargo Bank, Urban Strategies Council, California Reinvestment Coalition, OCCUR, Allen Temple Housing and Econ. Dev. Corp., Martin Luther King, Jr. Freedom Center, Family Bridges, Centro Legal de la Raza, SEIU 1021, East Bay Community Law Center, Housing Group of East Bay Move On and California Housing Finance Agency.

San Francisco: Also last Tuesday, hundreds of people supported the family of Juana Tello, POWER staff and leader of POWER's Free Muni for Youth Campaign.  

The Tello family's home was purchased by Fannie Mae after a foreclosure, and Fannie Mae tried to evict the Tello's from their home.  Little did Fannie know, the Tello's have been active in their community for years and have a strong base of supporters ready for action. After making calls to Fannie Mae CEO Timothy Mayopoulos to demand that Fannie Mae stop the eviction, the eviction has been postponed.  

CJJC along with POWER thanks all of the folks that spread the word, made the calls, and signed up to support the family!  Together, we bought time to chart our next steps to get the home back from Fannie Mae.  We will continue to need your support to win for the Tello's...

Read more: Housing Wins on Both Sides of the Bay