On March 13, 2015, NAR along with 7 banking and housing trade groups urged the Chairman and Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Budget Committee to adopt an amendment to create a budget point of order, which would prevent Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s guarantee fees (g-fees) from being used to cover federal spending.
G-fees are charged and used as a risk management tool by the government-sponsored entities to protect against losses from home mortgages. However, since Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were place in conservatorship, Congress has used their funds to pay for unrelated federal spending. Therefore, NAR’s coalition letter conveyed to lawmakers that g-fees should only be used to manage the companies’ credit risk and no longer be diverted for unrelated spending by Congress.