Lawmakers Reach Deal on Big Housing Package

Wall Street Journal (07/23/08) P. A3; Crittenden, Michael R.; Paletta, Damian
A volley of intense negotiations between legislative leaders in the House and Senate has netted a compromise housing package that is expected to pass this week. To arrive at a bill palatable to both chambers of Congress, the language allows Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to buy home loans of up to $625,000 in high-cost U.S. markets--a figure that is below what many House Democrats had sought, but above what Senate politicians had preferred. Despite that and other concessions, lawmakers refused to scrap a $4 billion initiative to give municipal governments the authority to purchase and rehabilitate foreclosed homes, even though the provision has elicited a vow from the White House to veto the plan. "Nobody in America will agree with everything that is in this bill," conceded House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass. "But I think enough people in America will find it acceptable, so it will go to the president's desk to be signed."