I share Senator Sessions' high opinion of the JAG Corps.

Many of us in Congress, led by Senator Durbin, tried to include in the TARP legislation a provision that could have kept millions of families in their homes at zero cost--zero cost--to the taxpayers.

This proposal would have corrected an anomaly in the Bankruptcy Code that prohibits judges from modifying primary residence mortgages the way they can modify every other type of contract.

Yes. That is true in politics, also.

As the President's plan evolves, if it is not modified, the Federal Reserve essentially would be the direct regulator of most of the major financial institutions of the country.

There seems to be a consensus emerging among regulators and many in Congress on the need for a Council to address risks in the financial system.

We need to be thoughtful and deliberate in our approach, but we need to act soon.

Much of the responsibility for setting standards would remain with the Federal Reserve, which raises serious concerns given its failure in recent years to identify serious risks to our financial system.

I just want to observe that it takes a bold legislator to want to go back into that blasted wasteland, and I'm delighted that you are doing it.

Well, it has been a long ordeal for our witnesses. So, all I will say is that we look forward to your practical, forward looking and optimistic voices around here.

there is a very strong do nothing caucus in the Senate. Their emotion is fear, their goal is doubt...

I appreciate very much my friend from Missouri's passionate defense of union wage scales and the kind of middle class life that unionized employment can bring to the middle class.

My perception today is this mortgage crisis is of the same scale in terms of threatening our economy and perhaps world recovery.

The mortgage crisis is escalating, not rescinding.

You are asking the impossible.

When are you going to stop the bleeding?

We are not even making a dent.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.