U.S. Department of the Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin sat down Thursday for his first television interview since coming into his new position, where he explained what is on the economic agenda of this administration.
During his interview with CNBC, Mnuchin explained that housing reform is still on his agenda, commenting that a change in the status of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is needed.
“I’m committed that under this administration we’re going to have housing reform so that we don’t just leave these entities the way they are,” Mnuchin said. “They’ve been sitting there for too long of a period of time and we need a solution.”
But this isn’t the first time the Treasury secretary commented on the need for GSE reform.
Shortly after getting selected to be the next Treasury secretary, Mnuchin said during an interview on Fox Business that “getting Fannie and Freddie out of government ownership” is one of the Trump administration’s top 10 priorities.
However, Mnuchin further expanded on this original talk during his hearing, backing away on his original comments.
“My comments were never that there should be recap and release,” Mnuchin said. “For long periods of time, Fannie and Freddie were well run and did not create risk to the government. I believe they are very important entities.”
Now, however, Mnuchin confirmed that a change is on the horizon, but that it may not come as soon as some would hope. He explained that tax reform is much higher on the agenda, but that GSE reform is still a high priority.
“We’re going to look at this, I think this will be one of the areas where hopefully we will have a bipartisan solution – I think there’s a lot of people that share the view that we need to do something with them,” he said. “This is something we’re going to study carefully, so I don’t think you’re going to see something right away from us…but this is definitely on the agenda."
See the full interview here:
