The White House on Wednesday removed Mark Calabria as the regulator of U.S. mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, hours after the Supreme Court gave President Joe Biden more power to fire him.
The White House late Wednesday appointed Sandra Thompson to succeed Calabria as acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Thompson has served as deputy director of the agency’s Division of Housing Mission and Goals since 2013.
Earlier Wednesday, an administration official said Biden was “moving forward today to replace the current director with an appointee who reflects the administration’s values.”
The shuffle at the top of the FHFA will revive the debate over how to overhaul Fannie and Freddie, the behemoths behind about half of the $11 trillion U.S. residential mortgage market. Former President George W. Bush’s administration took control of Fannie and Freddie in September 2008 to prevent their collapse during the housing crisis, and subsequent congressional attempts to overhaul their operations have floundered. Calabria, a libertarian economist appointed by former President Donald Trump, has sought to reduce the government’s role in the housing market since he took office in 2019.
