Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I rise in support of the amendment offered by the Senator from Montana. I was an original cosponsor of Senator Tester's bill, which forms the basis for this amendment, because I am concerned about consumers, credit unions, and the financial sector in Delaware. The Federal Reserve's proposed rule on interchange regulation does not guarantee consumers will benefit from reduced rates, and inadvertently creates a mechanism that could destabilize some of our small, community banking institutions. Because of these unintended consequences, I believe the Fed should go back to the drawing board and rethink the way it is going about setting interchange fees. I know my friend, the Senator from Illinois, worked hard last Congress, bearing in mind the interests of all parties involved, to authorize the Fed to make such a rule on regulating these fees. The Durbin amendment included a well-intentioned provision to protect small banks by creating a carve-out exemption from certain interchange fee caps. Unfortunately, I believe the Fed issued its proposed rule in haste, and it is becoming clear that this carve-out exemption threatens the competitiveness of smaller banks, community banks, and credit unions. A belief in the viability of this exemption was crucial in securing the votes necessary to include Senator Durbin's amendment in the Dodd-Frank reform package.…”