The New Yorker: Barney's Great Adventure
Washington, D.C., Of Counsel Michael Oxley, former Congressman and Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, was quoted in the January 12 edition of The New Yorker magazine in the article, "Barney's Great Adventure."
The article profiles Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), current Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. According to the article, in 2005, while the Democrats were still in the minority, Frank contributed to a bipartisan effort to tighten regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and new funds for rental housing. At the time, Fannie and Freddie were regulated by a small agency within the Department of Housing and Urban Development; the bill proposed to create an independent agency to monitor their operations.
Frank and Oxley, who was then chairman of the Financial Services Committee, achieved broad bipartisan support for the bill in the committee, and it passed the House. But the Senate never voted on the measure, in part because President Bush was likely to veto it. "If it had passed, that would have been one of the ways we could have reined in the bowling ball going downhill called housing," said Oxley. "Barney, to some extent, is misunderstood—with this image of him as a fierce partisan. He is an institutionalist. He believes in the House and in the process. He eschews the grandstanding style that so many members use and prefers to work behind the scenes and get something done."