ms. wertheimer. in in addition to being the partner in the securities department of wertheimer, cutler, tricken, hail and dohr, ms. wertheimer is a member of the firm's securities litigation and enforcement practice group. she has advised clients in securities law enforcement investigations, regulatory and criminal and public inquiries, and cross-border regulatory proceedings. from 1981 to 1983, she was a law clerk for judge spotswood robinson of the u.s. court of appeals. she received a -- columbia university school of law. we will now swear in the nominees. please rise and raise your right hand. do you swear or affirm that the testimony that you are about to give is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, help god? do you agree to appear and testify before any dually constituted committee of the senate? please be seated. each of your written statements will be made part of the record. before you begin your statement, i invite each of you to introduce your family and friends in attendan

ms. wertheimer i'm about thousand tiout of time. i will have to submit additional questions to you and mayor castro in writing. one quick question that i did want to ask is another uneveniq situation is the fact that the treasury department is a party to a preferred stock purchase agreement which set the conservatorship which set the terms for funding and repayment for man ee and freddie. how do you envision the hffaig interacting with the treasury and oversight given this unique situation. >> the president assedecessor i situation devoted a significant effort to developing collaborative working relationships in other agencies including the treasury department. the igs through cross agency work worked extremely effectively in oversight responsibilities where there was shared oversight. i would envision continuing that cross examination collaboration with igs in treasury as well as igs in other agencies as with u.s. attorneys across the country. that's the way we're going to get this job done because there's cross examination respons

ms. wertheimer. mayor, can you share or elaborate on your envision of housing and urban development, particularly based on your experience as mayor of san antonio? >> thank you for that question, senator reid. well, as a local elected official, of course, my viewpoint on this was -- was from the other end, working at the ground level. and what i've found absolutely essential to ensuring that folks have good opportunity by what hud does is to work across agencies. that's what we did in san antonio. very early on in my tenure, we got together our housing authority with our transit agency, one of our urban course school districts, one of our universities, the united way, to figure out how we could make better use of resources. and understanding from being at that local level that housing is an important component of overall quality of life and providing opportunity, but it's not the only component. when we tackle these issues in a more holistic way along with education, along with transit, i believe it

ms. wertheimer, please proceed. >> chairman, johnson. ranking member crapo, members of the committee, thank you very much for the opportunity to appear before you today. i am honored to be president obama's nominee for inspector general of the federal housing finance agency. before i

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 administration. we need to knee what your approach will be on both of these issues and whether you'll be advocating on behalf of them. within the debate of housing finance reform, current hud secretary shawn den on donovan worked very activity. we must continue to move forward on housing finance reform, especially as we approach the sixth anniversary of fannie mae and fannie mac being put into place. the committee has also addressed bilateral legislation to address the copping in the fund. in this matter it would be important to hear from mr. cast row that he is 100% committed t

ms. wertheimer, please proceed. >> chairman, johnson. ranking member crapo, members of the committee, thank you very much for the opportunity to appear before you today. i am honored to be president obama's nominee for inspector general of the federal housing finance agency. before i begin, i'd like to introduce my family who has accompanied me here today. my husband andy, our daughter, kate, my stead fast mother, my inlaws walter and ann pinkas. with that, let me get to the meat of what i'd like to say in my statement. 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 c