What Does the GOP Congress Take On First?

With the election behind us people are speculating as to what issues Congress will tackle in 2015.  In an article on housingwire.com  Stanley Street, President of Street Resource Group, a mortgage software development company, indicated that as far as housing is concerned, there will be, "a lot of talk but not action".

Street is of the opinion that it will take about six months for any action and people at that point will then be talking about 2016 elections.  He is predicting that as long as Fannie and Freddie make money little will be done to restructure those GSEs.  That has long been a conversation since the passage of TARP and the bailout of the giant mortgage insurers.  Street does believe that there may be some reform of the Dodd-Frank Act and the CFPB. 

Street sees CFPB as being high on the agenda and that Congress can do more about CFPB reform without Obama involvement.  He sees the major problems at CFPB as being the execution of the Dood-Frank Act and lack of oversight.  He does believe that the GOP-led Congress will attempt to replace a single dirctor of CFPB with a five-member committee.  He points out that the GOP has already made attempts to restructure the leadership of CFPB without success.  Maybe 2015 will be the year that CFPB will face some reorganization.

It will no doubt be interesting to watch a number of issues, including taxes and immigration.  On the morning news, it was reported that President Obama was already preparing executive action on the topic of immigration.  That is a fight that could take center stage.  There are just so many issues that need to be addressed due to the lack of any cooperation on Capitol Hill in the last year or more.  Whether CFPB and Fannie and Freddie get much attention is anyone's guess, but I tend to think other issues will be addressed before CFPB and the GSEs.

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