Housing-reform bill has insufficient support: Senate panel chief

By Ruth Mantell

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WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- A proposal that would wind down federally controlled mortgage-finance giants Fannie MaeFNMA -7.48% and Freddie Mac FMCC -8.03% has insufficient support among U.S. lawmakers, and will just serve as a "first step" in Congress's work on housing-finance reform, the chief of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs said Thursday. "This is not the final product," said Sen. Tim Johnson, a Democrat of South Dakota, at a committee session to work on the bill. "We will continue to work together to improve the bill and attract additional support." The bill likely has enough votes to pass in the committee, but too few to force the entire Senate to consider the legislation. Several committee Democrats are concerned that the legislation would make it too tough to access affordable mortgages. The expected failure of the current housing-reform bill comes on the heels of Fannie and Freddie's federal regulator laying out a new set of goals for the government sponsored enterprises aimed at supporting credit access and curbing banks' exposure to mortgage risk.