Warner deems House’s mortgage finance bill DOA

He questioned whether the bill has even enough GOP support to pass the House.

Although Corker briefly moved away from Warner during the comments, he acknowledged that two years ago, he wrote a bill similar to Hensarling’s plan, and “I took my medicine back home” from mortgage lenders, bankers and homebuilders. 

“I got back to the Senate and found out I was the only sponsor,” he said. 

The Corker-Warner measure is gathering support in the Senate with about 10 members — equally divided between the parties — of the powerful Banking Committee signing on so far, Warner said. 

Warner said there are also plenty of members off the committee who have expressed interest in the measure, and there is solid industry support. 

“A lot of members across ideological spectrums are joining the effort,” he said. 

He called the support level “a good spot” to start from, and that he and Corker have the “structural framework pretty right.”

Hensarling is holding a hearing on the proposal — announced nearly a week ago by him and several GOP colleagues — on Thursday. He said last week that he would mark up the measure before leaving for the August recess. 

When asked about the Senate bill last week, Hensarling responded: “What bill?” He argued that, without the backing of Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Johnson (D-S.D.) and ranking member Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) to steer the bill through the panel and onto the floor, the legislation would probably stall out. 

But Corker argued that the bill “has a real belt and suspenders to protect taxpayers,” and both lawmakers said that it was a good start in a long-delayed approach to a major issue that has been put off for nearly five years. 

During the 2008 financial crisis, the government took control of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and over that time, has pumped $187 billion into them to keep them afloat. 

Corker said he expects the Senate Banking panel to take up the measure in early September after dealing with newly introduced legislation to overhaul the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). 

Both measures will be handled “pretty close to each other” and with an open legislative calendar, Corker envisions that the Senate could complete a bill within the next five months. 

“Most Republicans realized that the window is closing if we don’t take action soon,” he said. 

“Time is of the essence, and we might not get an ideological bill, but this puts us in a much better place than where we are now.”