Johnny Isakson: “I come to the floor this afternoon in anticipation of the vote tomorrow on the financial regulatory bill and to express…”

“I come to the floor this afternoon in anticipation of the vote tomorrow on the financial regulatory bill and to express the concerns I expressed before its passage on the floor originally, and my continuing concern today about its final form--and I understand it will pass with 60 votes. Nobody has been more concerned about the economy and the financial markets and financial institutions of our country than I. In part, because of my lifetime in the residential real estate business, I have seen firsthand the sufferings in our mortgage industry, the foreclosures that have taken place, and what the subprime lending industry did in the U.S. economy. Before we rush to a reregulation of financial institutions, I think we have to stop and reflect on some of the things we have already noted as Members of the Senate. Senator Conrad, a Democrat from North Dakota, and myself introduced legislation over a year ago called the Financial Markets Crisis Commission. We introduced it because we believed everything that had happened in late 2008 through March of 2009 that collapsed our markets on Wall Street, collapsed our securities, collapsed our mortgage-backed securities lending, and hurt our banks both community and national need to be investigated.”