Summary: This report discusses the Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) housing mission oversight of the two largest government-sponsored housing enterprises: the Federal National Mortgage Association and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation. GAO found that (1) HUD adopted a generally conservative approach in 1995 to setting the final housing goals for 1996 through 1999 that placed a high priority on maintaining the enterprises' financial soundness and (2) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac complied with the final housing goals in 1996 and 1997, according to data they submitted to HUD. GAO also found several weaknesses in HUD's mission oversight. Specifically, HUD has not implemented a program to assess the accuracy of their data on compliance with their housing goals, HUD's research agenda does not address several issues necessary to fully understand the extent to which the housing goals promote housing opportunities, and the agency has not yet fully implemented a process under its general regulatory and new mortgage program approval authorities to ensure that the enterprises' financial activities are consistent with their housing mission. GAO summarized this report in testimony before Congress; see: Federal Housing Enterprises: HUD's Implementation of Its Mission Oversight Needs to Be Strengthened, by Nancy Kingsbury, Assistant Comptroller General for General Government Programs, before the Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Securities and Government Sponsored Enterprises, House Committee on Banking and Financial Services. GAO/T-GGD-98-177, July 30 (16 pages).
