FORTUNE–Occupying Wall Street might decline a couple of weeks, but the demonstrators who condemned the inequality of income may feel some vindication that knowing that Congress is taking steps to reel in compensation in the nation's largest mortgage finance companies.
On Tuesday, the House Financial Services Committee approved legislation that would end up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac executive compensation package worth tens of millions of dollars. It also would suspend future bonuses and aligning their salaries with other federal employees who make a lot less. The Senate is expected to take similar measures that restrict pay-out on the company redeemed and this law is expected to be ready for the President's hand at the end of this year.
Incidentally, the panel votes (52-4) came the same day, a judge ruled against demonstrators OWS, upholding the move by the New York City to clean up the hood of the Park private property and keeping Zucotti protesters from carrying the equipment returned. Surely this has left a huge void in the movement, motivated by a variety of reasons but the argument doesn't seem to have a comprehensive Wall Street paid too much while the rest of the U.s. languishes behind.
Just looking at hefty bonuses on Freddie and Fannie, taxpayers are expected to pay out billions to bail out the financial precipice. In 2008, the federal Government took over the company after the mortgage Giants saw large losses most of investments in mortgage-backed securities following the bust of the housing market.
The Government estimated the bailout could reach up to $ 220 billion through 2014. Earlier this month, Fannie requested to $ 7.8 billion more and Freddie asks for $ 6 billion additional assistance to cover loss of quarterly driven mainly by lower mortgage.