Congress quietly removes pay caps on executives at taxpayer-backed banks
S. 1990 — CURB Act · Filed by Jim Banks (R-IN) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Jun 9, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill amends the Federal Home Loan Bank Act to give the Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) explicit authority to set compensation for executive officers of Federal Home Loan Banks, overriding a prior statutory cap. Currently, the Federal Housing Enterprises Financial Safety and Soundness Act of 1992 limits executive pay; this bill allows the FHFA Director to establish compensation deemed 'reasonable and comparable' according to regulations the Director writes.
Why we flagged it
The bill's operative mechanism is to remove a statutory cap on executive pay at Federal Home Loan Banks and vest discretionary authority in a single regulator. This is a classic deregulation move — replacing a bright-line statutory limit with agency discretion — even though the title frames it as 'curtailing' unreasonable remuneration.
What the text implies
- The bill removes the statutory ceiling but does not require the FHFA Director to set lower compensation — it merely permits 'reasonable and comparable' pay as defined by Director-written regulations, which may result in higher executive compensation than the prior statutory cap allowed.
- Federal Home Loan Banks are GSEs with implicit federal backing and access to federal credit facilities; removing statutory pay limits on their executives shifts compensation risk from public oversight to agency discretion, concentrating power in a single regulator rather than Congress.
The full analysis lists 3 implications of this text.
Who stands to gain
Federal Home Loan Bank executives; Federal Home Loan Banks (as employers)