Tim Johnson, the South Dakota Democrat who wrote a bill to eliminate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, sat in the walnut-paneled chambers of the Senate Banking Committee and said Congress might never get rid of the two companies.
Johnson looked at Mel Watt, the director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency who was testifying before the committee, and told him to terminate U.S. control of the two companies. That would end a six-year political battle over dissolving the two mortgage giants, giving them another chance to prove they can carry the home loan system as private companies.
