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House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) announced Tuesday that he will hold hearings into the failure of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. His announcement came a day after House Republicans launched a campaign to discredit Waxman’s investigation into corporate misdeeds at companies that have failed amid the credit meltdown. “Everything you hear about why we had to spend $700 billion to bail out our economy comes back to Fannie and Freddie in one way or another,” said ranking committee Republican Rep. Tom Davis (Va.) on Monday. The two mortgage giants, nicknamed the "Toxic Twins" Tuesday by Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.), are perceived as having more ties to Democrats than other large, purely private corporations. “They seem to be at the epicenter of the crisis, and yet the chairman continues to focus on issues, such as executive compensation, that generate headlines but neither get to the root of the problem nor move us any closer to a solution,” Davis stated. “We’d hate to think the millions of dollars Fannie and Freddie executives contributed to Democratic congressional candidates also contributed to the reluctance to investigate this aspect of the crisis.” Waxman on Tuesday, as he prepared to grill executives of failed insurer American International Group (AIG), said “the request we’ve received from the minority will be pursued.” Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) praised the decision to look into the mortgage giants, but pressed for a firmer commitment and a date for the hearing. He added that Waxman should have looked at the federally backed companies first. “We’re sort of splashing around in the wading pool when we should be looking into the cesspool,” Mica said. Republicans also started a push at the hearing for Attorney General Michael Mukasey to name a special prosecutor to look into Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. |
