The newly appointed head of one of the nation’s top housing regulators is moving quickly to reshape not only the agency but also Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two government-controlled mortgage finance giants he oversees.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency, now under the direction of William Pulte, placed 35 unionized employees on administrative leave over the past two days, according to an email sent to members on Wednesday evening by the National Treasury Employees Union. The email, which was reviewed by The New York Times, said there had been no advance notice for the employees, who work in consumer protection, equal opportunity and research units.
In a statement, the housing regulator said, “We are streamlining our Agency and its naming conventions, but F.H.F.A. will continue to follow all mandated laws.”
The regulator appears to be among the many federal agencies that are taking steps to comply with the Trump administration’s aim to cut costs by reducing the size of the government work force. The pace and scale of the cutbacks have sparked protests from employees and legislators.
Gray Kimbrough, an F.H.F.A. economist who was not among the affected employees, said in a social media post on Wednesday that those placed on leave had been rushed out of the building and given no time to pack up their personal items.
The National Treasury Employees Union represents about 500 of the more than 600 employees at the housing regulator, which oversees Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage finance firms that have been under the control of the federal government since the 2008 financial crisis.
Fannie and Freddie do not write mortgages but they are critical players in the nation’s $12 trillion mortgage market. The firms buy mortgages from banks and package them into bonds that are sold to institutional investors and insured against a default of the underlying loans. This helps keep the mortgage market running by freeing up capital for banks to write more home loans.
On Monday, Mr. Pulte ousted 14 board members at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and named himself chairman of the boards at both companies, which together employ roughly 15,000 nonunion workers. He sent an email on Wednesday to Freddie employees notifying them that they would be expected to work in the office five days a week beginning May 1. Employees at Fannie received an email on Thursday informing them they would soon be notified about a new return-to-office policy. Copies of both emails were reviewed by The Times.
Mr. Pulte, an heir of the founder of PulteGroup, one of the largest American home builders, began his new job with a promise to work to make home-buying more affordable. Mr. Pulte said he would “ensure that the dream of homeownership becomes a reality for as many Americans as possible,” in a news release announcing his swearing-in as director of the housing regulator.