And who said no one in real estate is making money?

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Michael Williams, the CEO of Fannie Mae, won me over this week when, while testifying on Capitol Hill about big fat Fannie executive bonuses and multimillion-dollar salaries, he said this:

“These are challenging jobs under challenging circumstances and we need to pay and reward the people who are doing the jobs.”

The “challenging jobs under challenging circumstances” part sounds like an apt description of the newspaper industry, and I might just use Williams’ comment during my next annual review.

I think many people in today’s economy could see themselves working for someone like Williams. (Actually, many people in today’s economy would like to just have a job, period. But I digress.)

Members of Congress weren’t as keen on Williams’ comments as I was, though.

Instead, some in Congress want to put the kibosh on million-dollar bonuses paid to executives of Fannie and Freddie Mac.

Amazingly, it’s one of the few things congressional Democrats and Republicans agree on these days.

Completely irrelevant fact: According to the Internet, there was a guy named Freddie Mack, who was born in 1934 on a plantation in Bennettsville, S.C. He became a boxer, actor and singer and died in January 2009, which, interestingly, was the same month in which Freddie Mac announced a plan to rent out foreclosed homes.

Fannie and Freddie (Mac, not our boxer friend, Mack) own or guarantee more than half of all mortgages in the U.S. The two government-sponsored enterprises continue to be in the red despite being bailed out by taxpayers to the combined tune of about $169 billion so far.

That fact has some members of Congress taking aim at the companies’ execs, demanding to know why they think they deserve huge compensation packages. A bipartisan group of 60 senators have demanded changes to the pay practices at Fannie and Freddie.

How much pay are we talking about? Consider this:

For 2009 and 2010, total compensation for six tops execs at Fannie and Freddie was $35.4 million, according to news reports. Williams and his Freddie counterpart, Charles “Ed” Haldeman, received about half of that, and they each could earn up to $6 million in salary and bonuses this year. Fannie and Freddie were also paying $12.79 million in bonuses to 10 execs.

In response, Williams and Haldeman have said the compensation is needed to retain talented employees. Edward DeMarco, acting director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees Fannie and Freddie (they went into a government conservatorship in 2008 because they nearly tanked), has also defended the compensation.

But now might not be the best time to be arguing for gobs of pay for the top dogs at Fannie and Freddie, as both companies had losses in the third quarter.

For Freddie, the $4.4 billion third-quarter loss was its worst for any quarter this year. For the same period last year, it lost $2.5 billion.

Fannie lost $5.1 billion in the third quarter, up from a net loss of $2.9 billion in the second quarter and up from a net loss of $1.3 billion in the third quarter last year.

So, surprise: Fannie and Freddie are asking for more money from taxpayers. Fannie wants another $7.8 billion. Freddie is looking for $6 billion.

All of the bailouts are adding up: This month, the FHFA said Freddie and Fannie could deliver a total net cost to taxpayers of at least $124 billion through 2014.

The executive compensation at Fannie and Freddie is reminiscent of when, in 2009, it was revealed that government-bailed-out insurance giant AIG had paid bonuses to its execs. But there seemed to be more public outcry about the AIG payouts than about those for Fannie and Freddie.

Lack of public outrage or no, Fannie and Freddie execs might find themselves with less money in their pockets. This week, the House Financial Services Committee OK’d a bill to block the pay packages and align Fannie’s and Freddie’s executive salaries with those of other government employees who earn less. There’s a similar bill in the Senate.

Such legislation could be in front of Obama by the end of the year.

And Obama, as I recall, wasn’t too thrilled about AIG’s bonuses, so …

Roberts can be reached at [email protected].