Bill Would End GSE Roadblocks
(Bond Buyer) Monday, July 19, 2010
WASHINGTON — Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Calif., and 29 other members of Congress have introduced legislation that would prevent Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from stifling state programs that allow localities to sell bonds to finance energy-efficient upgrades made by homeowners.
The legislation follows a suit California attorney general and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown filed against Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Housing Finance Agency, arguing they are violating state law by blocking the programs.
The programs, dubbed property assessed clean energy, or PACE, programs, have come under fire from the mortgage titans and their regulator, the FHFA, which argue they make the underlying mortgages on participating homes too risky for the two government-sponsored enterprises.
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