President Joe Biden has picked Sandra Thompson, favored by liberal Democrats, to lead Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as the head of the agency that oversees them.

The White House announced Tuesday that Thompson will be nominated to lead the Federal Housing Finance Agency on a permanent basis. She has been serving as the regulator’s director on an acting basis since June, when Biden fired Mark Calabria, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump.

The FHFA oversees the mortgage-finance giants Fannie and Freddie, which together back $5.9 trillion in mortgages, three-quarters of the secondary market. Thompson would wield significant influence over the housing market.

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Thompson’s appointment will please congressional liberals, including House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters, who had called on the president to keep her as head of the regulator.

Prior to her appointment to lead the FHFA in June, Thompson served as the deputy director of the agency’s Division of Housing Mission and Goals, where she oversaw mission activities for Fannie and Freddie as well as the Federal Home Loan Banks. Prior to that, she worked at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in various leadership roles for more than two decades.

Thompson’s predecessor, Calabria, is a free-market economist who sought to limit Fannie's and Freddie’s footprint on housing markets and free them from federal conservatorship, a status in effect since they were bailed out in 2008. He was terminated after the Supreme Court handed Biden the power to do so in a 7-2 ruling related to the FHFA's leadership structure and the separation of powers doctrine.

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Sen. Sherrod Brown, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, praised Thompson’s nomination and her supervisory work with government-sponsored enterprises like the two housing giants.

“She has a distinguished career as a regulator and supervisor, first of our nation’s banks, and more recently of the GSEs,” he said in a statement Tuesday. “While leading the Federal Housing Finance Agency as Acting Director, Ms. Thompson has refocused regulation of the GSEs on ensuring that they fulfill their mission to provide safe, sustainable access to housing across the country."

Thompson, originally from Chicago, graduated from Howard University and has two adult sons, the White House said.