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The head of Fannie Mae and Federal Mac’s federal regulator, Bill Pulte, says he’s signed more than 80 orders revamping policies and procedures at the mortgage giants — only a handful of which have been made public.
Since being sworn in as director of the Federal Housing Financing Agency on March 14, Pulte has issued a raft of orders, decisions and waivers eliminating programs and practices intended to boost lending in minority communities, protect borrowers from unfair or deceptive practices, and assess risks associated with climate change.
The orders that have been made public are available only as pictures of the documents Pulte has published on his social media profile on X, often without comment. To date, Pulte has posted a dozen documents — including six orders, five decisions, and a waiver — implementing what in many cases are major policy changes at FHFA.
In an April 30 appearance on a business program on X, “From the Desk of Anthony Pompliano,” Pulte claimed he’s signed six or seven times that number of orders — he was not sure exactly how many.
“I’ve signed over 80 orders, or something like that,” Pulte told Pompliano. “I thought last I saw for sure was over 50, but somebody told me yesterday it’s now over 80. I don’t have an exact count, but that’s crazy to think about that. As a director of just federal housing, that you would have that many things that you could just — boom, boom, boom, get done.”
The FHFA, which has made no formal announcements of Pulte’s orders and has not made them available to the public, published 13 orders on its website during Trump’s first administration and 11 during the Biden administration.
Asked for copies of the additional orders Pulte says he’s signed, the FHFA provided the following statement: “U.S. Federal Housing FHFA is prioritizing efficiencies that eliminate wasteful and unnecessary red tape. We are laser-focused on finding smart solutions that make the American Dream a reality for Americans everywhere.”
Pulte, the grandson of PulteGroup Inc. founder William J. Pulte, angered some prominent Democrats by firing 14 members of Fannie and Freddie’s boards of directors and appointing himself the chair of both companies less than a week after he was confirmed.
Ten Democrats including Chuck Schumer, Cory Booker and Kirsten Gillibrand asked FHFA Inspector General Brian Tomney on April 15 to determine if the agency had complied with the law in gutting Fannie and Freddie’s boards, and to assess whether plans to downsize FHFA would compromise its ability to “fulfill its statutorily mandated functions.”
The next day, Senators Elizabeth Warren, Jack Reed and Lisa Blunt Rochester urged Tomney to “open an investigation into FHFA’s apparent noncompliance with federal laws and regulations,” claiming Pulte is prohibited by law from holding any position at Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.
“Within a week of taking office, he removed a majority of the directors of Fannie and Freddie, installing himself, his business associates, and partisan loyalists in their place,” the April 16 letter to Tomney claimed. “He also removed Fannie’s entire audit committee. After these actions, the boards appear to lack anyone from an organization that has represented consumer or community interests, or has shown a career commitment to low-income housing.”
The FHFA’s recent appointments to Fannie Mae’s board include Mike Stucky — a former Pulte Group division president — and banker, investor and lawyer Omeed Malik. As chairman and CEO of Colombier Acquisition Corp., Malik is leading a plan to take GrabAGun, an online retailer of firearms and ammunition, public in a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) merger.
Donald Trump Jr. — a partner in Malik’s venture capital firm 1789 Capital — will serve on GrabAGun’s board of directors, and Pulte announced in January that his family is an investor in the company.
Tomney declined both requests from lawmakers in separate letters on April 24, saying the FHFA was responding to those inquiries and committed to “continuing dialogue.”
“FHFA is best positioned to respond to your questions regarding the factual and legal basis for staffing decisions at FHFA and the changes made on the boards of the enterprises [Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac],” Tomney wrote in a response to the April 15 letter from Schumer, Booker, Gillibrand and other Democrats.
Both of Tomney’s letters to lawmakers were obtained by Politico.
Reading the tea leaves
Much of what’s known about the FHFA’s administration of Fannie and Freddie during the second Trump administration comes from Pulte’s posts on X, and media appearances on Fox News and other news outlets.
In the last week, Pulte has posted about meetings he’s had with top lending industry executives at loanDepot, Rithm Capital, Newrez and Annaly Capital.
On April 21, he posted, “We do not foresee any more executive leadership changes at Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac. Our focus will now turn to growth, making homes more affordable, rooting out mortgage fraud, & providing great career opportunity to those who make Fannie & Freddie great American Icons, again!”
In an April 9 appearance on Fox News, Pulte said there is an “ongoing investigation” into the issues that led to the firing of more than 100 Fannie Mae employees. He said FHFA discovered “multiple people were working two jobs” — including some who were located in China — and that some employees had received kickbacks for charitable donations.
In an 18-minute interview on “From the Desk of Anthony Pompliano” Wednesday, Pulte said the Trump administration is focused on bringing home prices down through deregulation.
EXCLUSIVE: Bill Pulte is tasked with making homes more affordable in America.
As the Chairman of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the Director of FHFA, Bill is hoping to drive real change for milions of people.
Here is our recent conversation on his plan. pic.twitter.com/ywiK7Y9fr0
— Anthony Pompliano
This post was originally published on this site
