As I understand Judge Jones and the subsequent 3 Judge Appealate Panel Decision double insulation means the US Congress transferred its Appropriations Obligation (1) directly and (2) indirectly. (1) directly by having the FHFA set their own budget subject to a "reasonable amount necessary" and (2) indirectly by extracting the funding not from the US Treasury but via the GSES balance sheets (see CASH on the asset side):
"So Congress did not merely cede direct control over the Bu-
reau’s budget by insulating it from annual or other time
limited appropriations. It also ceded indirect control
by providing that the Bureau’s self-determined funding
be drawn from a source that is itself outside the appro-
priations process—a double insulation from Congress’s
purse strings that is “unprecedented” across the gov-
ernment. All Am. Check Cashing, 33 F.4th at 225
(Jones, J., concurring). And where the Federal Re-
serve at least remains tethered to the Treasury by the
requirement that it remit funds above a statutory limit,
Congress cut that tether for the Bureau, such that the
Treasury will never regain one red cent of the funds uni-
laterally drawn by the Bureau."
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