Three key Republicans on the Senate Banking Committee have criticized Fannie Mae and its regulator for approving a 25% pay raise for the government-sponsored enterprise's president and chief executive officer, Daniel Mudd, who received $14.4 million in compensation last year."We are quite surprised that the board of Fannie Mae would sign off on this compensation package at a time when they have paid $1.4 billion in accounting and consulting fees to clean up their financial mess, and they are still two years behind in financial reporting," says a statement issued by GOP Sens. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, John Sununu of New Hampshire, and Mel Martinez of Florida. (Sen. Martinez is a former housing secretary.) Mr. Mudd received base pay of $950,000 in 2006, plus a $3.5 million bonus and 176,506 shares of restricted common stock. (In recent days Fannie's stock has been trading at $56. Based on that figure, the restricted stock would be worth $9.8 million.) "We are equally surprised that the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight approved this pay raise," the three said. The senators have asked OFHEO for an explanation.
