(JustPatriots.com)- President Biden is doing what President Trump should’ve done the instant he took office. He is clearing out any leftover appointees of his predecessor still serving in government.
According to the New York Times, President Biden is replacing Trump appointee Mark Calabria after the Supreme Court ruled that the president has the authority to replace him. Calabria was appointed to head the Federal Housing Finance Agency which oversees the mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.
During his tenure, Calabria had overseen a number of rules changes that were considered critical steps toward ending the federal government’s conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Those rules had been implemented at the start of the 2008 financial crisis that kicked off the Great Recession that plagued Obama’s first term in office.
Calabria had advocated for privatizing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. However Democrats and housing advocates, while supporting the removal of federal conservatorship of Fannie and Freddie, opposed the move to privatize the mortgage giants.
According to the White House, with the green light from SCOTUS, Biden will move ahead with plans to replace Calabria.
The NYT notes that with Calabria’s replacement, Biden will gain more control over the fate of Fannie and Freddie which has, for years, played a significant role in the housing market and enabling low-income Americans the ability to purchase homes.
While they do not directly provide home loans, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac do purchase mortgages and package them into securities. They then provide a guarantee to make investors who purchase those securities whole in case of default — which helps keep the cost of 30-year mortgages low.
In addition to Mark Calabria, the Biden Administration also booted four other Trump appointees from the Commission on Fine Arts – the agency that oversees the design of federal buildings in Washington DC.
Trump had issued an executive order in late December 2020 making the use of classical architecture the default style in the construction of federal buildings. In February, President Biden revoked the order.
