Fresh from last week’s Senate confirmation vote, Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) Director Bill Pulte is alluding to wide-ranging reviews of remote-work policies and previous contracts he plans to assess at the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs). This could come in concert with efforts by the White House and the Elon Musk-led U.S. DOGE Service.
In an appearance Monday on “The Ingraham Angle” on Fox News, Pulte appeared during a segment that host Laura Ingraham calls “The Daily DOGE.” It is designed to highlight “what Elon Musk and his team are finding deep within the government,” she said.
Following a clip of Musk appearing on a podcast hosted by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) that discusses government computer systems, the focus turned to Pulte’s recent filming of the “second headquarters” of Freddie Mac.
Pulte walks into what appears to be an office floor lined with empty chairs and inactive computer monitors. He encounters a locked door when attempting to enter another empty office.
“We were just in the other building, there was nobody there for miles and miles and miles,” Pulte said in the video. He then walked into a cafeteria area that he said was “completely vacant” save for food service workers.
“You’ve got the staff who make the food here five days a week, but the people who work in this building — or should work in this building — aren’t here five days a week,” Pulte said.
Appearing on Fox News with Ingraham, Pulte said that roughly 2,900 people were supposed to be working in offices at Fannie Mae, but only 49 were consistently there full time, on average. He later said that the government was spending $57 million per year on the building’s lease payments. Footage from the Fannie Mae offices did not appear in the segment.
“Freddie Mac has a similar problem; we’re going to fix it,” Pulte said. “President Trump hired a businessman to do this and we’re going to fix it for him.”
This echoes similar statements from U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Scott Turner shortly after he assumed his role. Ingraham asked Pulte about any diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives at the GSEs, to which he said, “DEI is dead at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.”
Pulte said two senior executives were removed as part of the anti-DEI crusade, adding that both companies are “safe and sound businesses.” Ingraham then asked about a “Biden deal,” and Pulte said this was related to a “Biden insider that got $2 million in payments over an eight-month period.” He said the person was fired but that he would “need to look into it.”
When asked further about it, he described the payments as related to “some severance,” but questioned why the amount was so high. Pulte did not elaborate on the nature of this finding beyond that it was related to the San Francisco FHLBank, one of the 11 Federal Home Loan Banks overseen by FHFA.
Ingraham asked about the nature of layoffs at the GSEs. Pulte said that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have “great staff,” but that he is aiming to “get rid of the nonsense, and we’re clearing that out.”
Outside of the mass cuts to the federal workforce driven by Trump administration through the Office of Personnel Management and DOGE, the White House has also prioritized returning more federal workers to the office five days a week.
A day after his inauguration in January, Trump issued an executive order mandating federal workers to return to the office full time. The order was signed in concert with a separate order mandating a freeze on federal hiring.
The GSEs themselves are not federal agencies, and it was believed that the order would not encompass their workers. But the order does apply to workers at the FHFA, the GSEs’ chief regulator.
On Monday, Pulte made one of his first major moves as FHFA director by removing 14 board members across both agencies. He added several new members and appointed himself as chair of both boards.
A board chair does not have inherent operational authority in a typical corporate hierarchy, but they carry influence over what the CEO chooses to pursue.
