Washington, DC — Rep. Chaffetz (R-UT), along with Rep. Issa (R-CA) sent a letter to David Kappos, the Director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, as well as Michael Williams, President and CEO of Fannie Mae, seeking information concerning a patent issued to Fannie Mae regarding a residential Cap and Trade system.

On June 7, 2005, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued Patent No. 6,904,336 for a "System and Method for Residential Emissions Trading." The patent was assigned to the Federal National Mortgage Association (“Fannie Mae”) and CO2e.com, LLC of New York. The patent lists former Fannie Mae Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Franklin D. Raines as the primary inventor. Former Fannie Mae executives Scott Lesmes and Robert Sahadi are also listed as inventors.

"I have serious questions about why Fannie Mae, back in 2005, was working on a Cap and Trade scheme," said Rep. Chaffetz. "Why would they be spending their resources on something that is well outside of the scope of Fannie Mae's charter? We want to see all the information relating to the patents issued to these 'inventive' former Fannie Mae executives?"

"Having ventured far beyond sub-prime lending policies, Fannie Mae appears to have served as a full-blown liberal think tank for crony-capitalist ideas," said Rep. Issa. "While the crony-capitalist Democrats who ran Fannie Mae like Franklin Raines and Jim Johnson used these kinds of ideas to enrich themselves, it was the American taxpayers who were left holding the bag after they failed. It's disturbing that Fannie Mae executives were positioning themselves in 2005 for financial gain from an Obama Administration cap-and-trade system, but given the huge amount of campaign contributions Fannie Mae poured over President Obama it should be no surprise."

Copy of the letter can be found here.

Patent can be found here.

Additional patents filed by Fannie Mae can be found here.

Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit against the Federal Housing Financial Authority (FHFA) to force the agency's compliance with a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, which Judicial Watch submitted on May 29, 2009, requesting documents regarding Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's political campaign contributions and policies related to such contributions. The filing motions can be found here.