Forty pages of our bill are exclusively dedicated to rating agencies. We spent an inordinate amount of time on the rating agency question. This is a complex issue and the source of a lot of discomfort. There is a headline in one of the…

let me say to my colleague, I have any number of colleagues who would like to be doing the same thing. All of them believe strongly in their amendments. I am not arguing about the substance of the amendment. At the conclusion of last…

let me begin by expressing my gratitude to Senator Lincoln of Arkansas and Senator Chambliss of Georgia and members of their committee for their tremendous work. In fact, there is some overlap in membership. I think a couple members of the…

I oppose his amendment for two reasons. First of all, it creates a very bright line of mandating 5 percent. Every nonprofit, all FHA mortgages would be subject to that rule, which would exclude an awful lot. The Merkley-Klobuchar amendment…

I want to take a minute or so, if I may, to express my feelings about the Sessions amendment. First of all, I am joined in these sentiments by the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Senator Leahy, who opposes the Sessions amendment as…

Under the Constitution of the United States, all revenue-rising measures must originate in the other body, the House of Representatives. Despite the merits of his amendment, with which I agree, we have what we call a blue slip. When an…

I am very grateful to her and members of her committee for the work they engaged in. We are truly fortunate to have the Senator from Arkansas in the position she is in--making decisions, providing valuable contributions, not just to this…

I strongly support the amendment offered by our two colleagues from New England, Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island and Senator Brown of Massachusetts. Both of these colleagues speak with some authority on this amendment. Jack Reed is a…

First, let me acknowledge the contributions of Senator Crapo to the Banking Committee efforts. While not endorsing the bill as it presently reads, he has been a valuable member of the committee for many years. I deeply appreciate his…

I thank both of my colleagues, not only for their work on this particular amendment but for the way they have approached the bill. They have been tremendously constructive in offering very solid ideas. This is one amendment that does a…

let me once again thank Senators Snowe and Landrieu for their very valuable contribution to this bill in more clearly refining and making it abundantly clear that merchants and retailers and others are not included as financial services or…

I commend my colleagues for their work on this amendment. But, as I have stated, I believe it will fuel, and not limit, the type of charter shopping in search of the most lax regulator that we have seen in this past crisis. The Hutchinson…

I want to take a moment and express my gratitude to my colleagues. I want to thank Senator Landrieu. She was involved in a lot of this, so I want to thank her immensely for her contribution. She chairs the Small Business Committee of the…

To be perfectly frank with you, I think many of us are alarmed by this nominee's focus on the British system, where government makes decisions for people on their care. In fact, I am reminded of a decision by the Department of Health and…

The Secretary of the Treasury shall conduct a study of and develop recommendations regarding the options for ending the conservatorship of the Federal National Mortgage Association (in this section referred to as ``Fannie Mae'') and the…

First of all, let me just say regarding the Merkley-Klobuchar amendment to the Corker--not amendment to it, but the side-by-side--I wish to thank Senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts and Olympia Snowe of Maine for cosponsoring that…

These are groups, it appears that, in fact, I should say in fairness to Senator Corker, in the latest version of his amendment, that allows for some exceptions on a case-by-case basis of these nonprofits, where each individual nonprofit…

Let me emphasize again to my colleagues that the McCain amendment is opposed by the National Association of Realtors, the homebuilders, and the credit unions for the simple reason that the amendment doesn't do anything except end Fannie…

I say this with all due respect, but the McCain amendment says that in 24 months we get rid of Fannie and Freddie. I don't call that reform. They are just getting rid of something. What are the implications of just getting rid of Fannie…

I want to tell my colleague from Vermont not only do I think we are going to achieve what he wants with his amendment, but we just had a meeting with the Chairman of the Federal Reserve to kind of brief us on these events in Europe over…

first let me thank my colleague from Oregon and my colleague from Minnesota as well for their contribution. While he has left the floor, I would be remiss if I did not express my gratitude to Bob Corker from Tennessee. Putting aside…

I have yet to meet a Member who didn't think an amendment they offered was going to improve the bill. We can't make that the criteria. First, I appreciate the Senator raising the issue because it is an important question. I have raised…

very briefly, I commend our colleague from Colorado for reaching out on this. The amendment is authored by the Senator from Colorado, and he has attracted good bipartisan support from Senators Tester, Isakson, Klobuchar, Begich, LeMieux…

I want to express my regrets over the decision made in Utah over the weekend regarding Bob Bennett, our colleague. I have served with Bob for 18 years. We have been on the Banking Committee together during that time. Obviously, we have…

Before my friend and fellow New Englander leaves the floor, let me thank her for her comments, but also let me thank her for this whole notion of leverage and capital standards as well. It is something we feel equally strongly about. We…