Chairman of House Subcommittee Overseeing Fannie Mae and

Freddie Mac Also Leads on Appraisal Legislative Reform

WASHINGTON - Congressman Paul E. Kanjorski (D-PA), the Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee on Capital Markets, Insurance, and Government Sponsored Enterprises, commended New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo for the agreement reached with Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and their regulator, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, to improve appraisal practices and ensure appraisal independence.  Chairman Kanjorski not only oversees the activities of the two housing government-sponsored enterprises, but he also has also led the path for appraisal reform in the Congress.

"Attorney General Cuomo deserves much credit for his work to reach this agreement on appraisal reform.  When implemented in January 2009, these improvements will help to ensure that appraisals serve as an independent evaluation of a property's value for the buyer, the seller, the lender, and the investor," said Chairman Kanjorski.  "These reforms by our nation's most important purchasers of home loans will have far-reaching effects and protect appraisers from coercion, collusion, inducement, and intimidation.   These reforms will help ensure that borrowers receive accurate appraisals which will also improve the integrity of the mortgage system."

Chairman Kanjorski added, "Given my long-standing interest in enhancing appraisal independence and my responsibilities for overseeing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, I also have been in discussions with many of the parties affected by this agreement during the last week.  I commend everyone involved in today's announcement for their work at improving appraisal independence.  These are significant first steps that we can now follow with additional legislative appraisal reforms, like those contained my bill which passed the House last year."

 Over the past several years, Chairman Kanjorski has worked on legislation to reform appraisal oversight and enforce appraisal independence.  At his request, the Capital Markets Subcommittee convened a June 2004 field hearing in the Poconos that focused on appraisal reform.  In 2005, Chairman Kanjorski then drafted and helped to introduce a bill aimed at, among other things, enhancing appraiser independence and bettering appraisal oversight.  Although that legislation did not become law, Chairman Kanjorski worked to revise it and introduced H.R. 3837, the Escrow, Appraisal, and Mortgage Servicing Improvements Act, in October 2007.  In early November 2007, Attorney General Cuomo endorsed Chairman Kanjorski's efforts to improve appraisal independence standards and practices. 

Chairman Kanjorski's bipartisan appraisal reform legislation was subsequently incorporated into the broader mortgage lending reform package, H.R. 3915, passed by the House in November by a vote of 291 to 127.  The legislation is now pending before the Senate Banking Committee, chaired by Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT).  Chairman Dodd's mortgage lending reform bill, introduced late last year, addresses many of the same appraisal and mortgage servicing issues included in Chairman Kanjorski's H.R. 3837. 

At last week's Financial Services Committee hearing with Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, Chairman Kanjorski publicly called on the Federal Reserve and other banking regulators to work to support the appraisal agreement announced today.

###