Members of the U.S. House of Representatives are calling on President Obama and the GSEs’ regulator to “use all of [their] powers to recover money” from companies that shifted losses on to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

They say legal action should be used to recoup funds from the underwriters of faulty mortgages and the issuers of underwater securities that have saddled Fannie and Freddie with hundreds of billions of dollars in bad loans.

As DSNews.com previously reported, the two mortgage giants hold a combined $354 billion in delinquent mortgages and REOs, and Fitch Ratings estimates that the nation’s four largest banks could be on the hook for as much as $180 billion in loan repurchases from the GSEs.

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Massachusetts), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, and Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski (D-Pennsylvania), chairman of the Subcommittee on Capital Markets, Insurance, and Government Sponsored Enterprises, released letters to the public Friday that they each have sent to President Obama.

They urged the president to appoint a new director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) that will “aggressively pursue claims” on behalf of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac against “companies that used fraud and deceptive practices” to pad their own balance sheets by passing off bad loans to the GSEs.

Kanjorski noted in his letter, which was also signed by Reps. Brad Miller (D-North Carolina) and Jackie Speier (D-California), that FHFA has pursued two kinds of legal claims to limit taxpayer losses.

First, FHFA has demanded that lenders from which the GSEs’ purchased mortgages buy back mortgages that did not satisfy contractual representations and warranties. But as of March of this year, Freddie Mac had demanded that lenders repurchase only $4.8 billion in mortgages, according to Kanjorski. No details were provided on Fannie Mae’s repurchase requests.

In addition, last month FHFA issued 64 subpoenas to obtain information needed to determine whether losses sustained by the GSEs on private-label securities are the legal responsibilities of the original issuers. Kanjorski says FHFA issued the subpoenas after trying for months to obtain the documents voluntarily.

Kanjorski’s letter stated, “FHFA must vigorously pursue all available legal claims for losses sustained from the conservatorship of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It is critically important to protect taxpayer funds. It is equally important that the American people know that their government is acting on their behalf, not on behalf of powerful financial institutions. The failure to pursue legitimate legal claims to limit losses to taxpayers would be another indirect subsidy for an industry that has received too many such subsidies already.”

Rep. Frank joined his colleagues by addressing his own letter to the president. He pointed out that the losses suffered by Fannie and Freddie have cost taxpayers almost $150 billion to date. Some of these losses, Frank said, were the direct result of deception.

“Private companies sold Fannie and Freddie loans or securities based on fraudulent documents. These transactions created private profits at public expense, and they should be fought with every tool at the companies’ and the agency’s disposal. These deals must not be allowed to get lost in the shuffle,” Frank wrote.

This very issue is the focus of an oversight hearing on FHFA to be held by Kanjorski’s Capital Markets Subcommittee next month.