Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and FOIA: Information Access Policy for the Government-Sponsored Enterprises

Wendy Ginsberg
Analyst in American National Government

N. Eric Weiss
Specialist in Financial Economics

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA; 5 U.S.C. §552) grants the public presumptive access— without explanation or justification—to certain existing, identifiable, unpublished, executive branch agency records. FOIA includes nine categories of exemption from disclosure—including information that could prompt national security concerns, invade privacy, or damage financial markets, among other concerns. Disputes over the accessibility of requested records can be appealed administratively or ultimately settled in court.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are congressionally chartered, stockholder-owned companies known as government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs). Their charters grant them special favorable treatment in return for supporting the nation’s housing by limiting their businesses to purchasing existing mortgages and either holding them as investments or pooling them into mortgage-backed securities, which are sold to institutional investors. In addition, Fannie and Freddie are charged with meeting certain affordable housing goals.

In September 2008, as a result of losses and inadequate capital reserves, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac agreed with the federal government to go into conservatorship. In conservatorship, the government takes control of a failing financial institution with the goal of returning it to financial health and stockholder control. Since Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac went into conservatorship, the government has purchased more than $150 billion in special stock issued by the two organizations. Since the financial crisis in 2008, the two GSEs have helped to finance more than half of all new mortgages in the country.

As stockholder-owned and -controlled companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would not normally be considered government agencies and would not appear to be covered by FOIA. On January 26, 2011, Representative Jason Chaffetz introduced the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Transparency Act of 2011 (H.R. 463), which would make Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac subject to FOIA by requiring them to be considered federal “agencies” for the purposes of FOIA. H.R. 463 was referred to the House Committee on Financial Services on March 23, 2011.

On May 25, 2011, Edward J. DeMarco, acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, testified that making Fannie and Freddie subject to FOIA could generate operational, compliance, and legal costs.

On July 12, 2011, the House Committee on Financial Services’ Subcommittee on Capital Markets and Government Sponsored Enterprises voted to approve the bill at markup, and it was then forwarded to the full committee. No further action has been taken on the bill.

This report examines some possible effects of applying FOIA to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and identifies some open questions that Congress may address in this context. The report analyzes how certain FOIA requirements and guidelines may pose concerns if they are applied to private institutions. The report explores cases in which members of the public sought information from an entity in federal conservatorship, as well as how Amtrak, a shareholder-owned company that is financially dependent on the federal government through grants and entitlements, administers FOIA.


Date of Report: November 10, 2011
Number of Pages: 19
Order Number: R42080
Price: $29.95

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