WASHINGTON  Government-controlled mortgage company Fannie Mae is asking for $1.5 billion in additional taxpayer aid after posting a smaller loss in the second quarter.

Fannie Mae (FNMA) said Thursday that it lost $3.13 billion, or 55 cents a share, in the April-to-June period. The results were the best since the company was put under federal control in September 2008.

That takes into account $1.9 billion in dividends paid to the Treasury Department. It compares with a loss of $15.2 billion, or $2.67 a share, in the quarter a year ago.

"Across our industry, we are seeing a more realistic approach to housing and lending that bodes well for the future," Mike Williams, the company's chief executive, said in a statement.

The government rescued Fannie Mae and sibling company Freddie Mac from the brink of failure two years ago. The new request means they have needed nearly $147 billion to stay afloat.

Fannie and Freddie own or guarantee about half of all U.S. mortgages, or nearly 31 million home loans worth more than $5 trillion. They buy home loans from lenders, package them into bonds with a guarantee against default and sell them to investors.

During the housing boom, Fannie and Freddie faced political pressure to expand homeownership and competitive pressure from Wall Street to back ever-riskier loans. When the market went bust, defaults and foreclosures piled up, and the government had to take them over.

Edward DeMarco, the government's chief regulator of the two companies, said in interview last week that the total cost to taxpayers for rescuing Fannie and Freddie should be less than $400 billion. That's under most economic scenarios, he said.

Over the next year, lawmakers plan to review the entire system for providing mortgages to Americans. That could include a dramatic overhaul of Fannie and Freddie, or ultimately their elimination.

The financial overhaul signed by President Barack Obama didn't address that issue, despite protests from Republicans that it was incomplete without a such a plan. The administration is holding a public conference on Aug. 17 in Washington to discuss the mortgage system.

"The country need lawmakers to come to an agreement on this," DeMarco said. The mortgage market, he said, can't operate indefinitely with the government providing life support. "We're going to have to figure out a solution."

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