FHFA's 2026/27 Strategic Goals: 'Manage the Conservatorships' and 'Fulfill Statutory Requirements' — Why Would They Be Doing This?

Tim Pagliara — CapWealth CEO, founder of Investors Unite, the man who beat the SEC in federal court and has been fighting for Fannie and Freddie shareholders longer than almost anyone — just flagged something important.

FHFA's Agency Performance Plan for Fiscal Years 2026/27. The document that defines what the agency plans to accomplish and how it will measure success. The thing that determines how employees are evaluated, how budgets get justified, and how Congress measures accountability.

Tim highlighted three items and asked one question: "Why would they be doing this?"

Let me tell you why.

The Three Highlighted Strategic Objectives

Strategic Goal 1: Responsibly Oversee Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for the American People

• 1.2: "Ensure the Enterprises fulfill all legal and statutory responsibilities"
• 1.3: "Manage the conservatorships on behalf of the American people"

Strategic Goal 3: Efficiently Manage U.S. Federal Housing Operations

• 3.3: "Fulfill statutory reporting requirements"

These aren't random checkboxes. Each one carries weight. Let me break them down.

What This Actually Means

1.2 — "Ensure the Enterprises fulfill all legal and statutory responsibilities"

This isn't boilerplate. HERA (the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008) imposes specific statutory requirements on FHFA as conservator — including the obligation to "preserve and conserve" the assets of the Enterprises, and to put them in a "sound and solvent condition." For 17 years, the government argued these were aspirational language. Now they're a performance metric.

I've been writing about HERA since 2016. I wrote 9 books about it. The government's position was always that "preserve and conserve" didn't actually mean they had to preserve or conserve anything. That argument got a little harder to make after the Supreme Court decision in Collins v. Yellen and a lot harder when the net worth sweep was exposed for what it was.

When an agency puts "fulfill all legal and statutory responsibilities" in its strategic plan, it's telling its employees — and Congress — that compliance with the law is a measurable objective. You don't write performance plans for things you intend to ignore.

1.3 — "Manage the conservatorships on behalf of the American people"

Read that carefully. Not "maintain." Not "extend." Manage. And manage on whose behalf? The American people — not Wall Street, not the political apparatus, not the permanent bureaucracy.

This matters because for 17 years, the conservatorship has been managed on behalf of the government's balance sheet. The net worth sweep funneled every dollar of profit to Treasury. The PSPAs were designed to keep the enterprises dependent. The argument was always "we need to protect the taxpayer" — while ignoring the ~$300 billion in dividends already sent back to Treasury on a $191 billion draw.

Managing a conservatorship means there's an end state. You manage a process to completion. You maintain something you want to keep forever. The word choice matters.

3.3 — "Fulfill statutory reporting requirements"

This one is subtle but powerful. Statutory reporting requirements include reporting to Congress on the financial condition of the Enterprises, the status of the conservatorships, and progress toward the statutory objectives of HERA. When you commit to fulfilling these requirements as a strategic objective, you're committing to transparency about where things stand.

Transparency is the enemy of perpetual conservatorship. The longer these reports show healthy, profitable, well-capitalized enterprises trapped in government control, the harder it becomes to justify not releasing them. Every quarterly earnings report from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac makes the case for conservatorship weaker.

The People In Position

This performance plan doesn't exist in a vacuum. Look at who's sitting in the chairs right now:

• Luke Pettit — Senator Hagerty's former senior advisor on the Senate Banking Committee — is now Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Institutions. The guy who spent three years absorbing Hagerty's pro-recap-and-release worldview is now shaping GSE policy at Treasury. Confirmed 69-30 with bipartisan support. Full profile

• Jonathan McKernan — confirmed Under Secretary of Domestic Finance — oversees the PSPAs directly. This is the senior Treasury position that controls the government's financial relationship with Fannie and Freddie. Full profile

• Bill Pulte — confirmed as FHFA Director. A housing guy. Not a status-quo bureaucrat. Not someone whose career depends on conservatorship continuing.

• Trump's March 13 Executive Order directed FHFA to eliminate unduly burdensome rules constraining residential development. You don't give operational directives to an agency whose mission you plan to leave frozen. Full analysis of the EO

The Money Tells the Story

Fannie and Freddie have been profitable for over a decade. They've sent the government ~$300 billion in dividends on a $191 billion draw during the crisis. They're building capital toward the regulatory minimums.

I hold 26 series of junior preferred stock across both companies. FNMAS, FMCKJ, the whole basket. I have since 2016. I wrote about it every single year — one book per year for 8 years. I'm not going anywhere.

For the full investment thesis, the complete Fanniegate timeline, and the privatization roadmap, those pages have everything.

Why Would They Be Doing This?

Tim asked the question. Here's the answer:

Because they're preparing to end the conservatorships.

You don't write a performance plan that commits to fulfilling statutory responsibilities, managing conservatorships on behalf of the American people, and meeting statutory reporting requirements — unless you intend to actually do those things.

The bureaucracy moves slowly. But when it puts something in writing as a strategic objective with associated performance measures, it moves.

The language in this document is not accidental. It's not aspirational. It's a commitment. And commitments in federal performance plans have consequences — they get audited, they get reviewed by the GAO, they get cited in congressional oversight hearings.

FHFA just told you the plan. Most people aren't reading federal performance plans. Tim Pagliara is. And now you are too.

I've been waiting 10 years for this. As Tim likes to say: just getting warmed up.

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Tim Pagliara is the founder of Investors Unite and CEO of CapWealth Advisors — managing nearly $2 billion in assets. #1 wealth advisor in Tennessee. 11 Kilimanjaro summits. Beat the SEC in federal court. The man is just getting warmed up. Full profile and interactive game

Related: Luke Pettit — Treasury Gatekeeper | Jonathan McKernan — Under Secretary | Fanniegate: The Full Story | How to Invest in Fannie Mae | Fannie vs Freddie | Privatization Guide | Glen's Positions | Fannie Mae Recap 2026