Chris Dodd

I hope not. I do not think many of the detractors of the current independent consumer agency proposal would continue to oppose the legislation--irrespective of how high the standards are--if the standards are uniform nationally and…

It's clear that we need to end charter shopping, where institutions look around for the regulator that will go easiest on them.

We need to preserve our dual banking system.

This is not to punish some or discipline some, but rather to try to think in 21st century architectural terms.

That shouldn't govern what decision is made.

The most common argument is not that it's a bad idea--it's that consolidation is too politically difficult.

Let me interrupt here. I want to make sure I get Senator Bennett in before the vote.

What we are trying to do here is fashion, obviously, a piece of legislation that comprehensively deals with all of this, and the hope is we are going to do that when we get back in the fall.

I really do not see that as a symptom of the fact that you have four different regulators overseeing different charters for FDIC-insured institutions.

Last week I suggested further consolidation of bank regulators would make a lot of sense.

I do support merging OCC and OTS.

The international community has condemned President Omar Bashir for his role in authorizing this genocide.

I hope that the President will continue to apply forceful pressure on the Sudanese Government to end the violence in Darfur.

Had there been a resolution mechanism as an alternative to what we confronted in September of last year.

Our primary concern is protecting working families in this Nation who have paid the highest and the most unfair price for our regulatory deficiencies.

We need to provide them with the peace of mind to protect the policyholders as well and make sure that our insurance industry is strong and stays strong during this time of economic difficulty.

The insurance industry provides millions of Americans... with the safety net they need both as individual homeowners, small businesses, as well as larger enterprises.

This discussion, the fundamental difference is that my sense of the 23 or 24 of us that sit on this Committee particular, is there is a great appetite for trying to figure out what works.

Wall Street's failures have hit Main Streets across the country.

What powers? Just identifying who is going to be a systemic risk is an important question.

I share my colleagues' concerns about giving the Fed additional authority to regulate systemic risk.

There have to be alternatives within those two bookends that give us far more flexibility to respond to these situations.

I appreciate my friend and colleague's comments, because he is on track and I agree with him.

A council of regulators will provide the necessary perspective and expertise to view our financial system holistically.

In our system of Government, elected officials should make decisions about fiscal policy and the use of taxpayers' dollars, not unelected central bankers.