Reports Claim Trump Wants Mark Calabria to Run FHFA

Dec 10, 2018

Two news reports published this afternoon have insisted President Trump plans to nominate Mark A. Calabria has the next director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA).

The Wall Street Journal and Politico published separate articles citing unnamed sources that claimed Calabria is in line to take over the FHFA after Director Mel Watt’s term expires in January. Calabria is currently the chief economist for Vice President Mike Pence and was previously Director of Financial Regulation Studies at the Cato Institute. Earlier in his career, he was Deputy Assistant Secretary for Regulatory Affairs at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Neither Calabria nor the White House publicly commented on these reports.

The FHFA was established under the Federal Housing Finance Regulatory Reform Act of 2008 as the replacement for the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO). James Lockhart, the last director of the OFHEO, served as the first FHFA director until August 2009. The agency was run by Edward DeMarco as an acting director for four years until Watt, a former Democratic Congressman from North Carolina, was confirmed by the Senate in December 2013.

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Phil Hall

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Dec 10, 2018

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