On the last legislative day before a recess that runs through Election Day, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) asked the Senate to pass S. 5681, a bill that would let the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s inspector general determine how much funding the office needs. Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) objected. The bill had been introduced that same day. It went nowhere.
Cortez Masto told the floor that FHFA Director Bill Pulte has pushed out ethics and civil rights staff and that the President fired the office’s acting inspector general last month. Those are her claims; the Record does not adjudicate them. Moreno said he supports independent oversight but that the bill sets no ceiling and no reasonableness test, and that assessments on Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Home Loan Banks end up in mortgage costs. He said the office already has more than 100 employees and a budget above $50 million. A change in funding, he said, should come with a cap, a reporting requirement and a recorded vote.
The rest of the day
Confirmed: Keith Sonderling as Secretary of Labor, 47 to 41, after cloture passed 53 to 47. Twelve senators, six from each party, did not vote on confirmation. The Senate also confirmed ten ambassadors and one Air Force general.
Passed: Twenty-two bills, none of them by recorded vote. The Digest lists only four roll calls for the day. The pile includes the Taxpayer Assistance and Service Act (H.R. 5349) on IRS services, the Health Care Cybersecurity and Resiliency Act (S. 3315), which orders HHS and CISA to coordinate, and the Skills-Based Federal Contracting Act (H.R. 5235), which bars minimum education requirements for contractor personnel in certain solicitations.
Committees: A Homeland Security subcommittee heard from AI researchers on rogue AI agents and a bill to create a Department of Energy evaluation program (S. 2938). The HELP Committee advanced Nicole Saphier’s nomination for Surgeon General, along with two other HHS nominees. Energy and Natural Resources reported out 22 items. Intelligence met behind closed doors.
Next: The Senate adjourned at 11:25 p.m. and will hold pro forma sessions only, with no business, through November 5. It returns November 9, when a cloture vote on the Survivor Justice Tax Prevention Act (H.R. 2347) is set for 5:30 p.m. The House was not in session and meets Thursday in a pro forma session.
An inspector general may set the price of watching a housing agency, one senator argued, as soon as Washington holds a vote on it. The Senate is back November 9. The inspector general, presumably, will wait.
