Frank recommended partner for housing agency

The Newton Democrat said he told a high-ranking administrator that Moses had the credentials for the position and would be a good choice. But he said he never asked anyone at the agency to take action.

“I never asked them to hire him,’’ Frank said in an interview yesterday, drawing a distinction between recommending him and specifically asking that Moses be hired.

At the time, Frank served on the Financial Services Committee, which was producing legislation to improve oversight of Fannie Mae. Frank eventually rose to chairman of the powerful committee in 2006. But he said that in 1991, his oversight responsibilities were minimal because he did not serve on the subcommittee drafting the oversight bill and because he was a relatively junior member of the committee.

Frank also said problems with subprime mortgages at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac did not occur until the early 2000s, long after Moses left the job at Fannie Mae in 1998, the year Frank and Moses split up.

In the new book, Frank recounts to Morgenson a conversation he had about Moses with the vice president of housing initiatives at Fannie Mae, Gerald R. McMurray, in 1991. Frank is quoted in the book saying that he told McMurray that Moses had been an economist with the Department of Agriculture and had received an MBA from Dartmouth.

“I talked to Jerry McMurray and said: ‘Herb’s a very good economist and has a business degree,’ ’’ Frank is quoted as saying.

Morgenson discussed Frank’s actions in a National Public Radio interview this week, and the issue was reported by the Boston Herald yesterday. Morgenson said in an interview with the Globe yesterday that the hire is an example of the cozy relationship that Fannie Mae executives had with lawmakers who were charged with overseeing them. She said she misspoke in telling the radio interviewer that Frank called Fannie Mae officials on Moses’ behalf; her book does not say Frank called anyone.