On the recordJuly 15, 2010
I am not going to use the time between now and 11 a.m. when we are going to vote on the cloture motion. We had 80 hearings held over 2 years, with countless efforts to reach out and bring in people. One can make a lot of accusations about the bill, but this was a very inclusive process. Half the amendments adopted on the floor in this Chamber during consideration of this legislation over 4 weeks were ones offered by the minority and were accepted and bipartisan amendments. There was never an alternative offered. There was never a substitute offered. It was a question of whether people wanted to amend this legislation. It is not a perfect bill, I will be the first to admit. We do not know ultimately how well the ideas we incorporated will achieve the results we all desire. It will take the next economic crisis--as certainly it will come--to determine whether the provisions of this bill will provide this generation or the next generation of regulators with the tools necessary to minimize the effects of that crisis when it happens.
