The Federal Housing Finance Agency emblem logo outside its headquarters on 7th St. SW, Washington, D.C./credit: bakdc/Shutterstock
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has ruled that the Federal Housing Finance Agency, created in 2008 to oversee Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the wake of the housing market crash, is constitutionally flawed because it doesn’t answer to the president.
The court’s decision Monday in Collins v. Mnuchin centers on the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, which was signed by then-President George W. Bush, establishing the independent FHFA to manage the government-chartered Federal Nation Mortgage Association and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Company. The FHFA put both Fanny and Freddie in conservatorship to protect the market from further losses.
