the fhfa plays a crucial role in our financial system. as the safety and soundness regulator of fannie mae, fannie mac, and the 12 regional federal home loan banks. to ensure they operate in a safe and sound measure and serve as a reliable source of liquidity and funding for housing finance. as senator crapo mentioned, since 2008, almost six years now, the agency has acted as conservator for fannie mae and fannie mac to protect the assets and properties of those enterprises and protect the tax payers investment which is currently $187.5 billion. currently fannie mae and fannie mac guarantee more than $5 trillion in mortgages in this country. three out of over four. congress mandated strong independent oversight of agency programs and operations by the fhfa oig to safe guard taxpayer dollars. to carry out this oversight, the oig conducts and coordinates, audits evaluations of agency activities, and investigations of the agency and its regulated entities. much of my professional career has focused on leading investigations into alleged wron

if they were to appear before the fhfa or fhfa oig, even on matters unrelated to matters i had advised them on, that i would recuse myself for a period of -- i believe it's two years. and, last, there were several items in our portfolio that because of potential appearance impro pryty issues we agreed to invest within 60 days of my appointment, if that is to occur. >> senator crapo. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mayor castro, the fha insurance fund has been undercapitalized since 2009. at the end of fiscal year 2013, fha announced that it would need 1.7 billion from treasury to cover an increase in anticipated costs of loan guarantees. this marked the first time that the fha needed funds from treasury to cover an increase in expected future losses in its single family mortgage program. last year this committee moved legislation, the fha solvency act, with strong bipartisan support. to get the fha back on stable financial footing. if confirmed, will you commit to help us move this piece of legislation and to move the fha toward solvency. >> thank you very much. thank you very much for the

if they were to appear before the fhfa or fhfa oig, even on matters unrelated to matters i had advised them on, that i would recuse myself for a period of -- i believe it's two years. and, last, there were several items in our portfolio that because of potential appearance impropriety issues we agreed to divest within 60 days of my appointment, if that is to occur. >> senator crapo. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mayor castro, the fha insurance fund has been undercapitalized since 2009. at the end of fiscal year 2013, fha announced that it would need 1.7 billion from treasury to cover an increase in anticipated costs of loan guarantees. this marked the first time that the fha needed funds from treasury to cover an increase in expected future losses in its single family mortgage program. last year this committee moved legislation, the fha solvency act, with strong bipartisan support. to get the fha back on stable financial footing. if confirmed, will you commit to help us move this piece of legislation and to move the fha toward solvency. >> thank you very much. thank you very much for the

it is essential that fhfa have an i.g. providing strong oversight of the fhfa's work relating to conservatorship of fannie mae and freddie mac. the i.g. also has an important role monitoring the fhfa's oversight of the federal home loan banks. miss worth himer will bring exie extensive experience to the position of inspector general to ensure that fhfa is fulfilling its mandates set forth by congress. i now turn to ranking member for his opening statement. >> thank you, mr. chairman. before us today are two nominees to two very important positions. mayor julian castro to be secretary of housing and urban development. and miss laura wortheimer to be the inspector general . both positions will have strong impact on housing and housing finance in this country. i look forward to learning what the nominees will bring to each of these issues. mayor castro, two of the critical issues this committee has spent expensive time addressing in this congress are among those i want to bring to your attention today. the future of housing f

it is essential that fhfa had an ig providing strong oversight of the fhfa's work relating to conserve toreship of fannie mae and fannie mac. he also has an important roll monitoring the fhfa's oversight of the federal home loan banks. ms. wertheimer will bring extensive experience to the position of sector general to ensure that fhfa has fulfilled its mandates set forth by congress. i now turn to ranking member tore his opening statement. >> thank you mr. chairman. before us today are two nominees to two very important positions. mayor castro to be secretary of housing and urban develop emt and ms. laura wertheimer to be the inspector general of the federaled financial agency. both positions will have strong impact on housing and housing finance in this country. i look forward to learning what the nominees will bring to each of those issues. mayor castro, two of the critical issues that this committee has spent expensive time agreysing in this congress are among those i want to bring to your attention today. the future of housing finance reform and the fiscal solvency of the housing a

the cfpb is joining with the fhfa with regard to the national mortgage data base. what we learned then, last april, is that the two agencies, the fhfa and the cfpb are going to jointly work to expand the national data base and the information that came out in the federal register forward to this proposed expansion is extremely alarming. i'm reading from the federal register right now. the record is in the new expanded system may include without limitation borrower name, zim zip code. social security number, military status and records. financial information, account information, including life events of the last few years and the list goes on and on and on. the question i have does it mean the assurances so you given us recently and as we've discussed the big data projects that you will not collect personal identifiable information on americans. is being changed as agency's intent changing. >> no, it is not. i believe without -- i believe what you're reading from is a particular statement that is done for bureaucratic,s under the law as to what could conceivably be

moreover the fhfa and cfpb indicated that borrowers don't have the opportunity or right to opt out of the database. finally the recent reports about employment discrimination at the cfpb are deeply troubling. two external reports and testimony from a whistle-blower highlight the cfpb's failure of the employment rating and compensation system and unacceptable conduct of certain bureau managers. today we will need to discuss how this occurred, why it took months for cfpb to acknowledge and act upon these independent reports and what additional steps the cfpb is taking to increase transparency and accountability. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you, senator crapo. any other members who would like to give brief opening statements? senator menendez? >> emergency alert. >> yeah. >> senator menendez. >> thank you, mr. chairman. welcome director cordray. the cfpb earlier this year released a report on consumer protection issues involving student loans and as i look at hard working middle class new jerseyans trying to get ahead, i feel that they fall further behind. a new class of college gr

with the fhfa. when i lead to you that long list of personal identifiers that the federal record said would be collected. you indicated that that was just a list -- what you call -- >> this is a term of art that only bureaucrats can love. s-o-r-n.lled a sorn, i don't even know what acronym is but it is sort of a statement of operational risk, something like that. >> this is also a statement in the federal record or register, that says that this data will be collected. >> but here is the difference. i believe that in order to access data, we have to secure this from somewhere, procure it, whatever. for us in order to create the database that i have pledged to you, will meet the kind of criteria i have laid out, identifying personal information. if it comes to somebody in a different form, it needs to be de-identified before becomes part of the database. >> you are actually collecting all of this information? >> i do not want to jump to that conclusion. they are collecting information and identifying

again about this new project on the national mortgage data base that you're engaged with with the fhfacan love. yes. called a sorn. i don't even know what the acronym is but it's sort of statement of operational risk notice something like that. >> well, accepted. it is also a statement out of the federal record, the federal register that says this data will be collected here's the difference. i believe in order to access data, we have to secure it from somewhere. procure it. buy it. whatever. and it comes in whatever format it starts out in. it's already being bought and sold out there by industry. >> understood. >> in that format. for us to create the kind of data base i've pledged to you will meet the dacriteria i've ld out. if it comes in a different form it needs to be identified before it can become part of the data base. >> what i understand is you are actually collecting this information. >> i don't want to jump to that conclusion. they're collecting information and i think identifying what may be in it depending on the original data set, which is out there in the market place a

adding concern is the admission by fhfa's project manager that the information on it would be easy to reverse engineer. moreover, the fhfa and cfpb have already publicly indicated that borrowers do not have the opportunity or right to opt out of the data base. finally, the recent reports about employment discrimination at the cfpb are also deeply troubling. two commissioned independent external reports and testimony from a whistleblower highlight the failure of the employment rating and compensation system and unacceptable conduct of certain bureau managers. today we will need to discuss how this occurred, why it took months for cfpb to acknowledge and act upon these independent reports, and what additional steps the cfpb is taking to increase transparency and accountability. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you, senator crapeo. are there any other members who would like to give brief opening statements? enator menendez. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and welcome director cord re. released a report involving student loans and as i look at hard-working middle class new jerseyens trying t

. >> what the fhfa notice says as it will include that information in this notice says that they will de-identify that for some purposes and the question comes back to, is this an unnecessary invasion of the privacy of citizens? when you look at the information that is contained -- this can be scary. but at a 2013 urban institute conference, prior to the issuance of this notice in the federal registry, the fhfa said that the information in this would be easy to reverse engineer. and i have been told that by many other experts who we have talked to. is this not correct? >> i would like to address that. that is a truncated quote, it is cut off. there is more to that and i believe the individual went on to say that the risk is important that we follow this properly. this quote was part of a longer passage and the full passage needs to be quoted in order to put that in context. taken out of context it sounds worse. >> i actually watched that on youtube -- they can do that if they want to. isn't it possible to reverse engineer? every expert i have talked to about this says that you can rev

fha and fhfa have recently announced meaningful steps to help improve lender confidence in making gse and fha-backed loans. but we have to do more to make sure our markets are effectively serving potential homeowners. this includes fostering the development of a safe and sustainable private market for mortgage lending that can serve a alongside government supported options. the private label securities market has been dormant since the financial crisis. the fact is we need to attract more private capital to the housing market and that's why i've directed my teem bring investors together to so we can uncover new paths to increase private investment. as part of this effort we're posting question on our ebb site to help us understand we need to make sure families who don't want to buy a home or affordable renting housing. there's more we can do to support renters. today i can announce we're taking an important step. under we reduce the interest rate for affordable multifamily buildings. under the mortgage risk sharing program which helps drive construction and rehabilitation of rental ho

i would refer back to the announcements made by the fha and the fhfa to deal with this issue of putback that is closing down the credit box so that people who are fully credit worthy are not getting access to mortgages. i think that is going to make a big difference. we need to finalize the risk retention rules. so we remove any uncertainty as what final rules are. we're constantly looking in the making home affordable program what we can do with authorities we have based on the current situation in the market provide appropriate relief to homeowners and i hope to be able to make some more comments about that on thursday. >> wonderful. i'm eager to hear about the treasury's efforts in this regard, particularly for struggling homeowners as you said. like those in my home state of nevada. and i would like to ask if i can meet with you and members of your staff following your announcement on thursday so that i can make sure that these initiatives are helping the people who need the relief the most at this time. >> i'm happy to have our staff follow-up with yours. >> thank you very much. se

every other financial regulator, s.e.c., fdic, fhfa, the list goes on, collect user fees. the flaw has been promoted by every president since reagan. it's even more important since ngress expanded cftc's responsibilities a year ago. according to acting chairman -- according to the acting chairman, and i quote, the unfortunate reality is, at current funding level the commission is unable to adequately fulfill the mission given to it by congress. i submitted an amendment that would have addressed this flaw but the house majority refused to allow it to be heard. we should not undermine the cftc's ability to oversee risky market behaviors and enforce the law. i urge a no vote. the chair: the gentleman from oklahoma. mr. lucas: i wish to recognize a gentleman who not only has a key component of this bill but as -- but carries the lion's chair of -- share of the subcommittee's work and did the bulk of what came to be known as h.r. 4413. i recognize the gentleman from texas, mr. conaway, for four minutes. the chair: the gentleman is recognized. mr. conaway: i want to thank chairm