Oversight of Mortgage Giants Sought

Oversight of Mortgage Giants Sought: "Oversight of Mortgage Giants Sought

By MARCY GORDON AP Business Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration is seeking a stronger hand over government-sponsored mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, amid accounting turmoil at Freddie Mac that has brought the departure of two chief executives since early June.

Administration officials are putting forward a legislative proposal that would shift financial regulation of the two - the biggest players in the multitrillion-dollar home mortgage market - to the Treasury Department from the Department of Housing and Urban Development and widen the government's authority over them.

Congress, which created the two companies and has been loath to rock the economically vital housing market, now may be receptive to such a plan. After Freddie Mac's accounting and management woes surfaced in the spring and brought federal investigations, members of the House and Senate proposed legislation that would tighten regulatory oversight of the two politically influential companies whose stock is widely traded."