Administration begins lay-offs acting on earlier threats

On Friday, day 10 of the shutdown, Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought simply said in a post on X that "The RIFs have begun." Several agencies are impacted, including the Department of Housing and Urban Development and Treasury. The action has been met with strong opposition in Congress, including Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) who voiced her opposition to the permanent layoffs, calling them arbitrary. 

According to several reports from industry stakeholders, the layoffs include the entire staff at the Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) Fund. The CDFI Fund has broad bipartisan support, and previous efforts by the OMB to defund the program and eliminate staff were met by strong resistance from both members of Congress and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

Agencies have already lost significant portions of their workforce, including 30% of HUD staff, since the beginning of the Trump administration this year. Additional layoffs are likely to further delay and hinder the functions of these agencies, including enforcement, grant awards, technical assistance, and more. The RIFs don’t take effect until December 13, and Vought has suggested they could be reversed when the shutdown ends.

FHFA hints at builder changes

A series of social media posts from President Trump and Federal Housing Finance Agency Director (FHFA) Bill Pulte hint at potential changes for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the Enterprises) to spur more homebuilding activity. The posts called for the Enterprises to increase homebuilding efforts by builders, but the exact nature of the changes are unknown. The President asked that the Enterprises “get big homebuilders going”, with Director Pulte responding that he was “on it”.

The actions that can be taken by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are somewhat limited, though the posts claimed that homebuilders are sitting on two million empty lots of land. Many of those lots are on “raw land” that has no infrastructure or permitting. Data from the Census Bureau shows that 250,000 of those lots have received permits, but construction has not yet begun. A total of 490,000 new homes were listed for sale at the end of August, the lowest levels seen in 2025. The posts have also led to criticism of the Administration’s policy focus, noting that a more effective way to spur housing development would be to drop the many recent tariffs added to building materials and take a more nuanced approach to immigration.

“President Trump received a resounding mandate to address America’s housing affordability crisis, and the administration is committed to delivering with deregulation and by taming Joe Biden’s inflation crisis to pave the way for interest rate cuts,” said a White House spokesperson.

Homebuilding groups have expressed a degree of confusion over the announcements. 

“We don’t know the status of those lots, No. 1, but No. 2, what I would ask the president is – the large builders, they’re going to do their own thing – but what are the policies we can put in place to help the other thousands of builders out there who contribute 50% of the housing in the country and don’t have access to Wall Street capital?” said Jim Tobin, president and CEO of the National Association of Home Builders. 

McKernan confirmed as under secretary of domestic finance

The Senate confirmed Jonathan McKernan by a vote of 51-47 to serve as the Treasury Department's under secretary for domestic finance, a role that advises Secretary Scott Bessent on domestic financial policy. McKernan previously served as the Board director for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) and has experience in housing finance and financial regulation.

“Jonathan’s credentials make him an ideal leader for Treasury’s domestic finance portfolio,” said Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent. “He will play an instrumental role in strengthening our economy by clawing back the government overreach and excess that defined previous administrations. I look forward to working with him as we lay the economic foundation for America’s Golden Age.”  

The news was met with widespread support from housing and banking groups, including NHC, that noted McKernan’s potential for bringing a balanced perspective to fiscal policy and the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. NHC issued a press release lauding the confirmation, stating “McKernan brings an incredibly diverse set of skills and experience to one of the most important economic positions in the Administration. His leadership in bringing together a broad range of stakeholders to inform the Trump Administration’s consideration of the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will provide important intellectual capital to ensure that the mortgage finance system, taxpayers, and homebuyers across the country are well served.”

OCC proposes rollback of fair lending data collection

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) announced new regulatory rollbacks for community banks that include a proposal to eliminate the Fair Housing Home Loan Data System. The data system was created in 1979 to monitor national bank compliance with the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act. The OCC has stated that the policy is redundant and that it is shifting towards a more risk-focused supervisory approach, arguing that the change could be implemented “without having a material impact on the availability of data necessary for the OCC to conduct its fair housing–related supervisory activities.” Earlier this year, the OCC dropped enforcement of disparate impact analysis in fair lending risk assessments. At the time, the agency noted it would continue to regulate fair lending risk through analysis of Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data. This latest change would impact community banks with assets up to $30 billion and would go into effect on January 1 of the new year. The change would remove a layer of transparency in fair lending oversight, potentially hampering efforts to detect discriminatory lending practices. While community banks may experience benefits from reduced compliance costs and lighter reporting requirements, the change aligns with broader Administration efforts to remove references to racial equity and fair lending practices.