WASHINGTON— President Joe Biden will move immediately to replace Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mark Calabria, following a Supreme Court ruling issued Wednesday that determined the leadership structure of the agency is unconstitutional.
In a split decision,
Calabria, a liberatarian economist, has been heading the agency since April 2019.
“In light of the Supreme Court’s decision today, the President is moving forward today to replace the current director with an appointee who reflects the administration’s values,” a White House official confirmed, adding that “it is critical that the agency implement the administration’s housing policies.”
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said in a press briefing held later that the administration is not yet sharing its timeline for replacing Calabria or whom they might choose to replace him.
In a split decision written by Justice Samuel Alito, with several of the other justices concurring and dissenting on several components of the case, the court also dismissed a claim brought by shareholders of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, who argued that a 2012 profit sweep agreement between the FHFA and the U.S. Treasury violates the law.
The plaintiffs had also argued that the provision in the 2008 law establishing the FHFA, which said a president can only fire the director for cause, was unconstitutional. While the court left in place the so-called net worth sweep in Wednesday’s opinion, the justices agreed that a sitting president should have the ability to fire the FHFA director at will. Previously, a president had only been able to fire the director “for cause.”
Staff writer Neil Haggerty contributed to this article
