WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Housing Finance Agency Director James Lockhart will hold a news conference at 11 a.m. on Sunday, the Treasury Department said.The officials are expected to announce plans for a federal takeover of mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. FHFA regulates the two companies, the largest sources of U.S. home mortgage finance.The move to take control of the two companies, which could amount to the largest financial bailout in U.S. history, is a bid to ward off further damage to a housing market in its deepest downturn since the Great Depression.Rep. Barney Frank, chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee, told The Washington Post the federal government was expected to control the companies for at least a year as it considers whether they should remain government-run, or be restructured.Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac own or guarantee almost half of the country's $12 trillion in outstanding home mortgage debt. They have suffered combined losses of nearly $14 billion in the past four quarters.In an emergency move in July, Congress gave the Treasury the authority to extend an undetermined amount of credit to the companies or take a stake in them if they ran into trouble.
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