as time documents show, drilling leases violate fannie mae and freddie mac rules. the question remains -- is fhfa or fannie mae or freddie mac going to do an audit to see how many mortgages across the country have non-compliant leases on them? this is a serious issue. it costs billions going forward. >> as i said, i would be happy to go back and take a serious look at whether an audit is in order, whether that is feasible and practical, what it is we would expect to get out of it. i am not prepared to give you -- >> are there any efforts in fhfa to see how many mortgages in the united states are overlaid with non-compliant leases? is there any effort to look at that? >> i am being advised that these leases that you're referring to may or may not be recorded. our ability to be able to effectively gather this information is uncertain at the moment. i am told that the staff is looking at this and will continue to. i would be happy to follow up promptly with your office to advise you of where we stand. >> thank you very much. my time has expired. >> the gentleman from t

you have said that given the calculations of fhfa, fiscal writedowns on freddie mae and fannie mac loans are not

homeowners so let's look at the case of fannie and freddie because this has to deal with homeowners and i want to bring up some of the major bullet points so fannie mae was created during the depression as part of the new deal freddie mac. came a little bit later why were they created they were an attempt to raise levels of homeownership and the availability of affordable housing and in the ninety's i just want to remind you under george h.w. bush and the clinton administration's they for the first time had affordable housing goals and pressure to expand loans for low to middle income borrowers so that's kind of the conception but how does it work exactly because this is what it sees favorable interest rates is one and high securities prices due to the government guarantee so the implicit guarantee of government basically allows them to have favorable into. straits and to get a high price for securities because the guarantee is that the government won't let them too well let them default or that sort of thing now this was tested during the housing crisis which made the fannie and freddie and solvent and alone the whole the us government did bail them

we will examine why fannie mae and freddie mac have done so little to fulfil the key goal of the homeowners. congress passed the emergency economic act. the president cited on october 3, 2008. that states that among other objectives, fannie mae and freddie mac shall implement a plan that seeks to maximize homeowners. we do not agree on much, but we agreed that efforts to assist homeowners have been inadequate. the program was supposed to help up to four million homeowners modified their love. -- modify their loans. harp was supposed to help up to 5 million borrowers. fewer than 900,000 have refinanced to date. where we part ways is how we respond to this problem. the chairman and other republicans believe we should stop assisting home owners, abandoned efforts to address the housing crisis, and allow millions of additional foreclosures. i come from a different place. i believe we must redouble our efforts. we need to buckle down and do the hard work necessary to develop solutions that will address this crisis affectively, a sufficiently, and definitively. it is too easy to throw up our hand

in my opinion we should examine not only the compensation of executives at fannie mae and freddie mac but also at wall street firms that put the short-term financial interests of the executives at long-term interest of shareholders and the public. in reviewing the conversation packages of fannie mae and freddie mac executives we will have tough questions for our witnesses about how they can claim credit and receive bonuses for achieving performance goals they had nothing to do with. such as increasing affordability in the housing market that has been takeing for several years. we will examine why fannie mae and freddie mac have done so little to fulfil the goal of assisting homeowners. in 2008 congress passed the merger -- the president signed october 3rd, 2008, state clearly that among other -- shall implement a plan that seeks to maximize assistant zoning. we do not agree on much but we do agree that to date efforts to assist homeowners have been woefully inadequate. the home affordable modification program was supposed to help support a million homeowners modify their homes but to

during that period, he never moved anything to restrain fannie mae and freddie mac. s fellow republicans continued to control fannie mae and freddie mac until the end of the 2006. george bush tried to get congress to do something about fannie mae and freddie mac, although he was contradictory there and the republicans refused. nothing happened to restrain those two entities from doing things they shouldn't have been doing until chris dodd became chair of the committee. if you read the book by bush's secretary of the treasury, hank paulson, he acknowledges that we were the ones who work for him and put it into conservatorship. and the one who now runs it says once we did that, we the democrats, there have been no losses since then. as to mr. gingrich, the notion that he was being paid $1.6 million for history is ludicrous. by the way, he refutes that himself when he said i got that money because i had been speaker of the house. i do not believe that having been speaker of the house has ever been held to enhance your credentials as an historian. if it enhances yourç wo

in 2007, when i first became the chairman, we passed the bill to control fannie mae and freddie mac. in fact, senator dodd and i got the legislation through. and as a result of the legislation that was ultimately signed in 2008, fannie mae and freddie mac were put into conservatorship. yes, during the period when newt gingrich was first the speaker and then a republican lobbyist, that's when there were no regulations. i was very impressed, though, with how well he was doing because he said he doesn't remember how much money he got. now, if you don't remember what a single client gave you when it was more than a million and a half dollars five years ago, then things must have been pretty lucrative. >> here's gingrich tonight with a new theme for the afternoon arguing he never pedaled his influence on behalf of freddie mac. let's listen to former speaker as of late this afternoon. >> i did no lobbying of any kind. i did no influence pedaling of any kind. but the truth is if you have the reputation, and i'm not going to use the words because they'll know the story i'm going with this. if

but watch this report from brian todd on the latest bonuses approved from both fannie mae and freddie>> you probably want to be paid like him. they are the respective ceos of fannie mae and freddie mac, the government-sponsored loans. accordi according the securities and exchange commission, they are getting paid about $2 million in bonuses. earlier this year the federal government approved nearly $13 million in bonuses for williams and eight other execs from the firms, despite the fact that millions of americans are struggling to make it through the housing crisis and that fanny and freddy have been hemorrhaging cash this year. they lost $10 billion in the last year and just asked congress for more money. >> this is completely excessive and uncalled for. >> representative john thun is spearheading to cancel the bonuses. they sent a letter to the housing agency asking it to revise the compensation policy for those execs. the fha approved those bonuses. >> why would you be rewarding this behavior at a time when we have the national economic issues and people across the country are very

tough questions for the heads of fannie mae and freddie mac mortgage lenders that received the biggestailout during the financial crisis. the government records show both companies are paying top executives millions in salaries but mostly in bonuses. fannie mae and freddie mac rely on federal cash to stay afloat. today in a congressional hearing on executive pay lawmakers asked the c.e.o.'s to defend the paychecks. >> did you have an expectation you would make not just seven figures but several of them, you would make $8 million or $9 million every two years? >> i think we all hope to aspire to advance in our years and advance our compensation as we do. >> but you made $9.3 million the last two years while the president made $800,000. do you think that's okay? 147ship they -- >>shepard: they defended the bonuses to keep top talent. one c.e.o. who only makes $245,000 but the others say they were brought in to undo what was done and they are doing a fine job. >>gerri: no, they are not. sucking holes of money from the taxpayer, $183 billion we put into these two and $13 million in bonuses

how effective fannie mae and freddie mac is to this day people remember that i had to do it. now we find out that newt gingrich was a consultant to freddie mac to the tune of about $1.5 million. so, what you are say something correct, these organizations historically have helped politicians in both parties financially. >> they sure have. gingrich maintains that he never lob idea for them. >> he advised them. >> they basically gave him an effective $20,000 a month consulting contract. which is pretty reasonable and normal in this business. but, what newt has to do now is not just treat this as a financial scandal because i don't think it is. he has to explain what he did -- what advice he gave them because if it turns out that in 2002, newt gingrich wrote them a memo saying don't give these mortgages out. then it becomes an asset for him. becomes a positive for him. >> you know those memos are around. >> newt gingrich would love to give this money back. >> the speaker has to say what he did. >> right now the issue is repealing 13 million in bonuses. i have a petition on dick m

. >>> still to come, the new accusations of misconduct by freddie mac and fannie mae. see how they are blamed for billions of wasted dollars. >> a guy wearing some baggy pants cannot board a plane. >> a trial gets under way in a maryland robo-call case. ♪ ♪ [ jerry ] attention shoppers. your groceries are the size of idaho but the interest rate on your checking is small potatoes. earn more at capital one bank. get new high yield free checking. your interest rate will be 5 times the national average. that's huge. and free atms at any bank. free is good. sign up at capital one bank. what's in your wallet? what is he, a cdesdale. >>> you are watching abc7 news at 6 on your side. >>> a baltimore judge dismissed one count of conspiracy against a longtime aide to the former governor is accused of using robo-call to suppress voter turnout. he faces two other conspiracy charges. >>> the family of robert stephens will receive $2.5 million. robert stephens will drop all other claims. she accused the government of negligence for palin to stop the production of anthrax -- for fail

mae. we also have the chief executive officer of freddie mac. mr.d demarco is the acting director of the federal housing and finance agency. pursuant to the rules of the committee, i will ask you all to rise and take the oath. please raise your right hands. do you solemnly swear and affirm that the testimony you are about to give will be the truth and nothing but the truth? let the record indicate all witnesses have answered in the affirmative. please be seated. i will not have the heaviest gavel today, but i will tell you when the yellow light comes on, try to summarize. i recognize mr. williams for five minutes. >> i appreciate the opportunity to speak with you today. >> the closer you have the microphone, the better. >> i appreciate the opportunity to speak with you today about the important work that fannie mae is undertaking and the compensation program put in place for the executive team. fannie mae has a dedicated team of talented professionals working to carry out the critical work of the company in the housing finance market. we have immens

freddie mac. widely blamed along with fannie mae for contributing to the housing debacle. payments that started only months after gingrich's own party forced him out of congress. >> we have many clients who asked for strategic advice and we provided strategic advice. we did no lobbying of any kind, period. >> reporter: when pressed in last week's cnbc debate, he said he offered advice as a historian. >> were you not trying to help freddie mac fend off the effort by the bush administration to curb freddie mac. >> no, no -- >> to curb freddie mac? >> reporter: some say gingrich did a lot more. >> it's a way for a former member of congress to back door lobby. they call themselves a consultant, they don't meet any definitions of a lobbyist, but they're still influencing policy. >> reporter: while gingrich was privately taking freddie mac's checks he was publicly railing against other politicians including barack obama for accepting campaign contributions from the mortgage giants. >> what you have is the rich on wall street and the powerful at fannie mae and freddie mac, had so

this is what he said about chris dodd's supposed connections to fannie mae and freddie mac and not regulatinghem enough. this is o'reilly in september of 2008. >> this is a guy who's totally in with all the people at wall street and fannie mae and freddie mac. they have given him money, put him in a position of power and he's going to write a bill to give them money? there is something wrong with the current system. >> the new disclosures about the amount of money whether it's newt gingrich and the gingrich company and we have yet to find out how much money he made as the chief operating officer and principle of the gingrich group. whether he should have been disclosing the fact that he was on the freddie mac payroll at the time. that he was going after chris dodd? >> i think it reminds people what they do not like in politicians which is hypocrisy. that's the worst thing to be labeled is a flip flopper. people don't like the sense that you are saying things just to be toll tick. you areç better off to take an unpopular position and stick wit as opposed to things that make you look -- and nu

insane. >> reporter: republicans, and especially tea party supporters, point to freddie mac and its competitor, fannie mae, as a symbol of everything that is wrong with big government. on the campaign trail, michele bachmann jumped on it. >> while he was taking that money, i was fighting against fanny and freddie. >> but gingrich today said his experience was a bonus. >> it reminds people i know a great deal about washington and if you want to change washington we tried four years of amateur ignorance and it didn't work very well. >> reporter: with voters sick of washington, this is a reminder that gingrich was part of the inside washington crowd both as a member of congress and later as a big-time consultant. >> pelley: thanks, jan. from the haves the have-notes. the occupy movement considers its next move. there's a new experimental vaccine for cancer and pioneers of space get one of the highest honors on earth when the cbs evening news continues. it's amazing what soup can do. . you walk into a conventional mattress store, it's really not about you. they say, "well, if you want a firm bed you can lie o

bill that restricted bonuses that would've prevented the bonuses that which is given by fannie mae and freddie mac under mr. demarco, at that passed the house, and the senate blocked it and i regret that. but the fact is this majority, when with a majority, voted to prevent these bonuses. the taliban from new jersey objected to the bill. i stress again this is not a bill that impacted truly private sector entity. it restricted bonuses only for those entities that had outstanding at the time federal funds, either under t.a.r.p., or out of those restrictions, or fannie mae and freddie mac. so when we knew the history, let's be clear. some of us tried to pass legislation that would have prevented these bonuses. it was opposed and blocked in the senate. i yield back. >> ms. biggert? >> thank you, mr. chairman. and thank you for doing this bill. and i just have a question for the sponsor who would -- who is talking? >> green. >> first i want to say that the ceo of fannie and freddie were paid 15 times that of the president of the united states. and 30 times more than any member of this cabinet. and

this is after fannie mae and freddie mac lost $4 billion last quarter. what stood out is how these ceo's answered questions about their own income. >> what year did you first have compensation, including a bonus that put you over $1 million? >> congressman, i'm not sure what year that was. >> money's not that important to you? >> no, money is important to all of us who are here today, sir. >> you did come out of the private sector, hopefully you remember -- what did you make the last year you were at putnam? >> i don't recall. >> did you make more than a million dollars? >> yes, i did. >> i must tell you, you all come from a different world than the one i come from. if i had made a million dollars, i sure would know when i made it, that's for sure. >> the executives say the high salaries are needed to compete for the best talent. one more note, freddie mac has now asked the federal government for another $6 billion. >> it got hot in that room on capitol hill today, kelly o'donnell, thanks. >>> the protesters of the occupy wall street movement are regroup

processed for closures so this whole approach to doing business this way and direct engagement between freddie mae and -- freddie mac and fannie mae and individual law firm is and a path -- >> that is good news. we understand you had said that the firm would have to me -- i am quoting -- certain minimum uniform criteria. what are those criteria? >> those are the process of being developed. >> could ask for a draft of those criteria when they are completed? when will they be completed? >> there's work actively going on. >> i can't tell you exactly but over the next couple months--we're not just working with fannie and freddie on this but the primary banking agencies because the banking agencies have been involved in oversight with banks as mortgage servicers have in doing in this area. the law firm actually works for the mortgage servicers so we're trying to get alignment between the standards we believe our approach. here's that bait regulators aligned with us on that so that there is uniformity in the mortgage market with regard to performance expectations and standards for which we are going to

on the house financial services committee, a congressional panel charged with overseeing freddie mac and fannie mael election commission found this to be a blatant violation of federal law and fined freddie mac $3.8 million, the largest fec fine ever. but this was only part of freddie mac's strategy to curry favor among federal lawmakers. freddie mac at the time was trying to fend off calls for new oversight and regulation. lobbying records show the federally backed mortgage lender spent more than $50 million between 2003 and 2006 just on lobbying. >> both fannie mae and freddie mac were major political players. they were spending millions of dollars each year on lobbying, if not tens of millions of dollars and they were incredibly well connected organizations. >> reporter: among those paid to advise freddie mac was former house speaker neutrnewt gingric. he was paid more than $1.5 million by freddie mac. he denies he ever lobbied for them and insisted he tried to warn them they were headed to financial disaster. >> i said to them at the time this is a bubble. this is insane. this is impossible. >>

fannie and freddie, again.executives at fannie mae and freddie mac getting million dollar pay days...lready on the hook for nearly 1700billion bailout buckk given to those mortgage giants. more trouble trading firm run by foomer new - persey goverror jon corzine... being investigated for reportedly tapping into its dollars are said to be missing. meannime aaerican drivers still going bii... and boostiig the big three.ford, g-m and chrysler all posting sales gains in october...trrcks and s-u-v leading the way.and bann of america the latest bank saying bye- bye to debit card fees...it's now dropping plans to charge customers five oming upp.. ness. i'm - cell phone companies know a lot about you... just by how you're sing yyurrphone.find out what they're doing with that gathered information. information. ♪ [ female announcer ] pillsbury chocolate chip cookies with hershey's chocolate chips. for a moment of warm, gooey, togetherness. chocolate chip cookies... from pillsbury. [ female announcer ] having grands! biscis easy.the morning just pop 'em in... then go about your business... and i

amount of money from fannie mae and freddie mac. tell me, first of all, how much money was it? >> well, i'm not sure of the exact amount, but the reports are it's about a million six. we are trying to work that out. i don't have the numbers in the campaign because i'm no longer at gingrich group. only from freddie mac, i never got anything from fannie mae. it was over a number of years. started in '99 and went into 2007 or 2008. we are trying to pull that together. i think we will have that information probably by tomorrow but we've asked the people at the center for transformation that one gingrich group to pull it all together. it's money paid out over a period of time. gingrich group has had as many as 30 employees at any one time. we've had office necessary atlanta, where the headquarters are in washington and in st. louis, missouri. it has -- with the center of transformation it acquired a very large number of members. i i think the freddie mac payments were relatively a small percentage of the total income of gingrich group ov

. >> millions were paid to top executives at fannie mae and freddie mac. now calls for the president to cancel nearly $13 million in bonuses paid out. the government says the mortgage giants received millions in money. john barrasso wants the president to step in, because he says the bonuses reward failure. more from the white house on that. martha: that's a big story. fannie and freddie's problems started in 2003 and result a government takeover in 2008, in july 2008, concerns over the companies, which are quasi government companies, caused their insolvency, that had a plan to provide unlimited government funding for them for 18 months. by september, both ceos were relieved of their jobs, they walked away with huge payouts in the millions of dollars, franklin raines among them whose name you may remember from all of that. later that month, fannie and freddie are removed from the s&p 500 because of their de prettied -- depleted market value, so at that point, not much later, we're seeing $13 million bonuses and we know the president has criticized that typ

mae? >> just freddie mac. >> will you make those records public?> freddie mac and fannie mae have been under congressional scrutiny for years. he has reportedly worked with the companies for the past 8 years. >>> the federal housing authority could run out of money. if home prices continued to fall they may have to turn to the treasury for a bailout. >>> some news about your bottom line late payment fees among the credit card companies are leveling out. it could mean that people are catching up with their payments. the biggest break in prices came at the gas station. americans spend money elsewhere. compared to last year, the cpi is up 3.5%. >>> if you have to e-mails from delta air lines, there may be a stamp. they are getting e-mails with attachments. do not open the attachment. >>> kind of a strange day to day. it was not really cold, it was not really warm. >> it is mild. the rain is going to get steady and it will get colder. i would not be surprised if tomorrow afternoon, we could have some flurries. >> here we go. >> it is contagious. >> dec

the executives are asking for a $13 million bonuses not for the fannie mae or freddie mac, they want them for themselves. are you in the mood to pay it. senator john thune is not in the mood to pay it. where is your holiday cheer? >> my holiday cheer isn't in support of 12.8 million dollar in bonuses for freddie mac and fannie mae executives. >> aapparently you're not the only one that wrote the letter. it's quite a hefty list of senators unhappy about this. >> it is. we had 60 senators sign a letter to the executive at the federal housing finance agency and basically saying that they need to reexamine their federal or their employee compensation package to make it more accurately reflect the public mission of the agency as well as the fiscal realities we're facing today. these bonuses show a real tin ear to what's happening in the real economy out there, and having 14 million americans who are unemployed. >> you know, the letter i read signed by the 60 senators is such a nice senator-like letter. i would have written it for the first line would be are you out of your mind? i mean, r

freddie. did a bang up job, you really did. now he is blaming the republicans for all the parties. governmental the republicans who were the ones responsible for fannie maebad times incredibly try to blame us. george bush tried to get congress to do something about fannie mae and freddie mac although he was contradictory there. the republicans refused. >> bill: here is barney frank on my program. actually talking to cnbc but we used this on my program before i yelled at him. go. >> i think this is a case where fannie and freddie are fundamentally sound. that they are not in danger of going under. they are not the best investments these days from the long-term standpoint going back. i think they are in good shape going forward. they are in the housing market. i do think their prospects going forward are very solid and in fact we are going to do some things that are going time prove them. >> bill: all right, everybody give me a d. >> d. >> give me a u. >> give me a m. give me a b. you fill that one in. we don't have to say anymore. do we have to say anymore? >> he is adorable. >> bill: is that right, gutfeld? who knew? >> he is as insightful as he is hands

here is the difference with freddie mac and 19, -- fannie mae. charles payne says ain't that a kick in the freddie and the fannie. >>guest: how more disingenuous can washington get. and they hit us up for another $14 billion so it is approaching $200 billion. >>neil: freddie mac and fannie mae. millions and millions not based on a system of merit, or based on anything. there is no way you can justify this and we have $35 million on the screen. but what makes it interesting --. >>neil: but their argument is we are stabilizing things. it is like me asking for a bow thus because i am breezing. the argument is the blood letting is done. and you are not convinced. >>guest: anyone can be convinced. not a person. no one in the audience watching the snow is convinced of that. if they can put that argument up, they could be entitled to a bonus but that they should collect a bonus. remember tarp and the president said? anyone who takes tarp money, a c.e.o. can only make half a million. that was it. we are not talking bonus but half a president from running

coherence to go nose to nose with obama and force obama to give back the money he's taken from fannie mae and freddieac, forced him to -- who after all got $90 million in six years while totally mismanage fannie mae. >> that was gingrich in 2008, implying that freddie mac's money is tainted. what he didn't mention is his group was paid handsomely by freddie mac in the years leading up to the crisis. what was the firm being paid to do? gingrich first told reporters that freddie mac hired him as a histori historian. cnn has talked to four people who worked at freddie mac at the same time gingrich did. they said that isn't accurate. gingrich now says he was a strategic adviser. he denies he ever lobbied for freddie mac. we asked freddie mac. they told us gingrich was a consultant and didn't lobby for them. it's a fact gingrich was never a registered lobbyist. some say it's a matter of kmant icks. gingrich says he'll make the records public to the extent he can. had his campaign released a list called a fact sheet about gingrich'ses ties to freddie mac. they said that's all they'll be releasing. let's ta