Edward DeMarco, the acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, challenged Washington to show leadership in shrinking the government's role in the housing finance market.
In an appearance yesterday before the House Financial Services Committee, DeMarco pointed to the ongoing rancor between the White House and the GOP leadership in Congress as an impediment to solving the issue.
‘We need Congress and the administration to agree on a legislative path for the role of government in the mortgage market going forward,’ he said. ‘Even if it's not the whole picture, we need parameters on how to gradually shrink Fannie and Freddie.’
DeMarco stated that increasing the level of private investment in the mortgage market needs to occur within the next five years, adding that ‘we should be moving ahead now.’ However, he acknowledged that it was difficult to ‘to put a strict timeline on something when it's still in the design phase.’
DeMarco's appearance before the committee was briefly interrupted by protesters from the New Bottom Line activist group, who yelled out ‘Dump DeMarco!’ before being arrested by Capitol Hill police.