Christmas came a day early for the chief executive officers of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac , the U.S. government-controlled suppliers of funding for home mortgages.

The companies on Thursday disclosed new pay packages under which Fannie CEO Michael Williams and Freddie CEO Charles (Ed) Haldeman Jr. will earn as much as $6 million a year, including bonuses, well above their current terms. The packages came with the blessing of the Treasury, which has pumped a combined total of about $112 billion of capital into the companies over the past year to keep them in operation, and the Federal Housing Finance Agency, or FHFA, which regulates the companies.

The FHFA said that on average, compensation for executive officers of the companies in 2009 is down 40% from the levels before the government seized control of them in September 2008 as defaults soared on home mortgages guaranteed by the firms. That move, under a legal process known as conservatorship, allows the regulator to control the board and management of the companies, although their common shares remain owned by private shareholders. The Treasury has agreed to supply as much as $200 billion of capital apiece to the companies in return for preferred stock paying a 10% dividend. The Treasury also has a warrant to acquire 79.9% of their common stock.

Because of these arrangements, the top officers of Fannie and Freddie take their cues from the government on all major decisions, current and former executives say. The government has made foreclosure-prevention efforts the top priority for Fannie and Freddie.

The pay packages for top officers of the companies are entirely in cash, the companies said in securities filings. Their shares have been trading on the New York Stock Exchange at less than $2 apiece, and it isn't clear when the companies might return to profitability or whether the common shares will have any value in the long term. Policy makers are just starting to debate how to transform the companies in an attempt to reduce the risks that they could again produce heavy losses that need to be covered by taxpayers.