Tom Harkin: “I come to the floor to express my strong disappointment with the so-called small business legislation passed by the…”

“I come to the floor to express my strong disappointment with the so-called small business legislation passed by the House of Representatives which is now coming before the Senate this afternoon for a cloture vote and to express my support for the substitute amendment offered by Senators Reed of Rhode Island, Levin, Landrieu, and others, of which I am a cosponsor. Quite simply, there is a right way and a wrong way to address some of the legitimate concerns about the ability of small businesses to access capital. Unfortunately, the House bill is completely the wrong approach. In the name of helping small business, the bill takes a meat ax to the very investor protection laws that have allowed our capital markets to flourish. On Sunday, March 11, the New York Times published an editorial about the House bill titled ``They Have Very Short Memories.'' This title could not be any more appropriate because in the wake of the dot-com bubble, the Enron corporate accounting scandal, and the 2008 financial crisis, advocates of this bill must have very short memories indeed. The idea that this is the right time to further weaken regulations on Wall Street is simply unconscionable.…”