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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

Handing over the public purse to an enhanced Fed is simply inconsistent with the principles of democratic Government.

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

I support the actions the regulators have collectively taken to stabilize the financial system.

Ultimately, I believe if we are able to reach some sort of agreement on systemic risk and whether it can be managed, I strongly believe that we should consider every possible alternative to the Fed as a systemic risk regulator.

Taxpayers had no choice but to step in, assuming billions of dollars of risk, and save companies because our system wasn't set up to withstand their failure.

The economic crisis introduced a new term to our national vocabulary--systemic risk.

Without a new comprehensive resolution regime, we will be forced to repeat the costly ad hoc responses of the past year.

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.

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

For over 2 years, this Committee has worked to stem the tide of foreclosures in America.

I am frustrated--that is a mild word to use--that we even have to hold this hearing at all.

I am prepared to make some of these investments provided we get some results.