Taxpayers were outraged to learn that the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) recently approved massive salary increases for the top executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Prior to June 30, 2015, the CEOs at Fannie and Freddie each made a generous salary of $600,000 annually. Beginning on July 1, however, the CEOs total compensation packages were increased to an annual target of $4,000,000. This is unconscionable, given that these two organizations are still backstopped by taxpayers.
Today, Congress begins the process of overturning FHFA’s ill-advised decision when the House Financial Services Committee begins marking up H.R. 2243, the “Equity in Government Compensation Act of 2015” sponsored by Congressman Ed Royce of California. If enacted, the bill would cap the salaries of executives at these massive taxpayer-backed organizations at approximately $250,000 a year.
National Taxpayers Union was proud to endorse H.R. 2243 earlier in July.
To learn more about why this was a bad deal for taxpayers, check out this editorial in The Hill.