I think there has been more heat than light evidenced by those who have attempted to characterize what the amendment offered by Senator Brownback seeks to achieve with the proposed amendment or with legislation that he introduced earlier…
Chris Dodd
The Public Record
Christopher Dodd is a former U.S. Senator from Connecticut, serving from 1981 to 2011. A member of the Democratic Party, Dodd was known for his work on issues such as health care, education, and financial regulation. He played a significant role in the passage of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which aimed to prevent the kind of financial crisis that occurred in 2008. Dodd also served as the Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, where he was influential in shaping policies related to housing and banking.
To Cuban Americans who want to travel to Cuba--many do-- this is, in a sense, saying you can only go back to the country of your birth once during a year, unless you have a sick relative, and then you have to apply to some bureaucrat in…
Let me say to my friend and colleague from New Jersey, I admire his rhetorical skills immensely. He made a valiant effort to shift the argument and debate implying we are doing a favor, this is somehow a great act of generosity and…
I like the idea that an average citizen in my State, in Massachusetts, in Florida, can go into Cuba and walk those streets, talk to people in the marketplaces, and share with them what we stand for as a nation. Every time we have allowed…
I spent a week in Cuba in December, in fact, all over the area, all over Havana, and Varadero as well for a day. I point out to my colleague that I saw Americans all over the streets of Havana. The idea you are confined to Varadero Beach…
As someone who has been there and spent the time and wandered without restraint and had conversations with people--I had a long conversation, as someone who speaks the language, speaks Spanish; I was able to have lengthy conversations with…
This is a 36-month bill to deal with a very specific, real problem. I just left a hearing this morning on the medical industry. We are not talking about personal injuries here, but to give you some idea, there are some serious problems in…
We do not protect illegal contracts in this legislation. If there is any question, let the legislative history confirm that. I do not think we need confirmation. Upholding an illegal contract by legislation would require herculean efforts…
Let me give a factual example to make the case. Assume you have two identical computer systems, system A and system B, sold by the same manufacturer. They prove to be defective and cause economic damages of $100 million and lost profits to…
Again, I listened to the debate on the Kerry amendment. Again, as I stated earlier, I went down the various points of the proposal. The amendment basically is designed to open up the McCain legislation to the kinds of unbridled litigation…
I thought our colleagues might find it worthwhile to know that there are literally dozens of organizations, representing a significant percentage of the gross domestic product of this country, that endorse the McCain-Wyden-Dodd…
I say to my colleague, we had a very delightful meeting for an hour and a half with Andy Grove. Those were, as I recall them, his sentiments expressed to us. He is someone who has been quoted over and over in the last number of weeks, and…
I wish to again turn to the Y2K liability bill and the very real importance of this issue. As you know, I have served for the past year with Senator Bennett on the Senate Special Committee on the Year 2000 Technology Problem. For over a…
we are getting arcane. If a contract is illegal, it is not a contract. Just to say we have a contract, if there is no consent, if all the principles necessary for it to be a valid contract are missing, if a contract is inherently illegal…
I enjoy the Senator's collegiality and leadership. It is nice to have the distinguished Senator from Idaho as a new Member of the Senate. Let me begin these brief remarks by commending the distinguished chairman of the committee, Senator…
In response to my colleague--and I thank him for raising the issue--I do not claim great expertise in the product liability area. We have done some work, and I appreciate his comments, on the securities bill, the standards reform bill, and…
I take a moment on the pending issue before the Senate. The year 2000 litigation reform proposal has certainly been the subject of a lot of discussion over the last couple of days. As the ranking Democrat on the committee chaired by the…
I think there is a need to try to come up with some legislation to minimize what could be runaway litigation in this Nation. There have already been some 80 lawsuits, many of them class action lawsuits, filed on the Y2K issue. We have been…
It is somewhat appropriate, I say to my friend and colleague from Connecticut, that the Presiding Officer is from Ohio. But for Ohio, we would not have made it to the Final Four, the final game. This is a moment of great joy for my…
If the leader would yield further, I appreciate him showing some patience here. This is, I think, a very good idea. By the way, I am a cosponsor of the proposal here to do this for our service men and women. I had the pleasure of being…
I believe he expresses the feelings of all of us here. Whatever other differences there may be, I think there is a deep sense of appreciation first and foremost for our own men and women in uniform; secondly, for the organizations that are…
Child care is an issue that does not have an ideological parent, does not have a partisan parent, if you will. This is an issue of which I believe people all across the country appreciate the importance. The average cost of child care is…
I commend him for his statement recognizing the contributions of Eudora Welty. This Connecticut Yankee loves her writing. And for my birthday present this year I received a first edition copy of one of Eudora Welty's novels. I prize and…
During the recent spring recess, I took the opportunity to travel to Brussels, Belgium, to meet with NATO officials about the situation in Kosovo. Last week, I traveled to Macedonia in order to make a firsthand assessment of the refugee…
I hope my colleague appreciates, that when I pick up and read that my amendment has been pushed out, before the conference has even met, that it makes it kind of hard on me and hard on those of us who supported that amendment. So, yes…





