Oxley: GSE Reform Still Possible

Differences between the House and the Senate on GSE portfolios and creating an affordable housing fund are not "unbridgeable," and an agreement on GSE regulatory reform is possible, according to House Financial Services Committee Chairman Michael Oxley."It would be shame after all our hard work … if we couldn't get the bill to the president's desk," the Ohio Republican told a National Association of Federal Credit Union legislative conference. It is "encouraging" that the Treasury Department and the White House have moved off their insistence on strict portfolio limits, Rep. Oxley told reporters after his NAFCU speech. And he indicated that negotiations between House and Senate banking committee leaders are continuing. Rep. Paul Kanjorski, D-Pa., also expressed optimism that an agreement on a government-sponsored enterprise bill could be worked out by the end of September so that Congress could come back in November and pass it. "It would be almost sinful not to get a new regulatory regime put together," Rep. Kanjorski said.