The Politico blog ran a story by Rep. Jeb Hensarling and Rep. Paul Ryan [Solving the Fannie Freddie Problem] on 7/23/2008.  In that article they're quoted as saying:

"Not withstanding these risks, Congress is now being asked to go even further and give Fannie and Freddie an unlimited line of credit from the U.S. Treasury and force the taxpayer to buy equity in the companies in order to address any solvency concerns at these companies."

"Fannie and Freddie have always been able to borrow money more cheaply than their competitors by virtue of their implied government backing and other specifically granted government benefits like a $2.25 billion line of credit at the Treasury. Yet such a safety net has not made the companies sounder. To the contrary, it has encouraged them to make even riskier and larger bets than their competitors were able to – which has been a money maker during a housing boom, but a nightmare when housing bubbles burst."

"Granting Fannie and Freddie such broad additional borrowing powers on top of the already generous privileges they enjoy would set a dangerous precedent that if you are big enough and interconnected enough, then you can privatize your profits and socialize your losses. It abandons free-market principles and four decades of assertions that no company was ever “too big to fail.”

On Saturday Sept. 27th, Dawn Kopecki of Bloomberg News, had a follow-up story [Fannie-Freddie exit plan proposed] about U.S. Rep. Jeb Hensarling's proposed plan to giver Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac two years to either return to profitability or liquidate their assets.

"Hensarling, chairman of the Republican Study Committee, said he plans to introduce the bill, which will end federal conservatorship of the companies within two years and require their regulator at that time to appoint a receiver to liquidate assets or allow the companies to return to the private sector with new restrictions."

Also referenced in the Bloomberg News story were the comments from James Lockhart, Director of the FHFA, regarding the delay in implementation of the Home Valuation Code of Conduct.

Click here for the full article.