Stuff in the News: Housing Finance, Crude Oil, Iran, Federal Land, Export/Import Bank

In an effort to spur substantive and structural housing finance reform, U.S. Senators Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), David Vitter (R-La.), and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), all members of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, reintroduced the “Jumpstart GSE Reform Act.” The legislation would prohibit any increase in the guarantee fee – which is required to be charged by government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – from offsetting other government spending while also prohibiting the sale of Treasury-owned senior preferred shares in the GSEs without congressional approval and structural housing finance reform.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee passed H.R. 702, a bill that would lift the 40-year ban on the export of crude oil.

The Senate failed to pass the resolution to reject the President’s nuclear deal with Iran by a vote of 56-42, failing to invoke cloture on the measure.

The Fiscal Year 2015 Consolidated Appropriations Act, passed in December of 2014, included a 2-year extension of the Federal Land Recreation Enhancement Act (FLREA). Current authorization will expire at the end of 2016. The House and Senate Interior Appropriations bills for Fiscal Year 2016 include another year extension of FLREA until the end of 2017. The Act permits federal land management agencies to continue charging modest fees at campgrounds, rental cabins, and at day use sites that have certain facilities.

The Ex-Im Bank serves as the official export credit agency of the United States and helps facilitate the export of American goods and services to international markets. Congress failed to act to reauthorize the Bank’s charter by June 30, 2015, and as a result, the Bank has not been allowed to provide American businesses with any new financing. Since 1992, the Export-Import Bank has returned more than $7 billion in profits to the Treasury Department, with $675 million of that coming in fiscal year 2014. The Export-Import Bank approved $20.5 billion in authorizations in fiscal year 2014 alone, which supported an estimated $27.5 billion of U.S. exports and more than 164,000 U.S. jobs. According to the Export-Import Bank, since 2007, the Bank has directly helped approximately 140 Hoosier companies export more than $4 billion in goods and services overseas. During its 80-plus year existence, the Export-Import Bank has garnered support from every President during that span and previously been repeatedly renewed with bipartisan support by Congress.