Tester: Eliminating Fannie and Freddie bonuses ‘just the first step’

(BIG SANDY, Mont.) – Senator Jon Tester today released the following statement after the Federal Housing Finance Agency responded to his concerns and announced that it will eliminate bonuses and reduce salaries 75 percent for top executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  Tester led a bipartisan Senate effort to rein in the government-sponsored housing agencies’ “unjustified” bonuses and backed legislation to reduce excessive executive compensation:

“Public officials have a responsibility to taxpayers and these bonuses clearly violated the public’s trust.  Today’s news is just the first step to bringing more accountability and changing the culture at Fannie and Freddie.”

In November, Tester told Acting Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Edward DeMarco that no bonuses should be awarded until the agency adopts the compensation recommendations of its own investigator and starts to use some “common sense.” 

DeMarco said today’s announcement was in response to the concerns of Tester and other lawmakers.

Tester, a long-time critic of excessive compensation at the housing agencies, recently introduced the bipartisan Stop the Outrageous Pay Act to suspend all bonuses and place all Fannie and Freddie employees on a structured pay scale.

Tester’s bipartisan STOP Act is available online HERE.

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