Tom Harkin: “usually when votes are cast, I don't like to revisit them. People have their reasons; we vote and we move on around…”

“usually when votes are cast, I don't like to revisit them. People have their reasons; we vote and we move on around here. But I heard so much in the well from people voting on this last sense-of-the-Senate resolution that I felt I should take a little bit of time to perhaps clarify a couple of things and to make an additional point. First of all, this was a sense-of-the-Congress amendment. It was nonbinding. Someone said, ``We shouldn't be legislating what the Federal Reserve should do.'' With that I wholeheartedly agree. We were not legislating a law to tell the Federal Reserve what to do, No. 1. That is my first point. This was a nonbinding sense of the Congress--we adopt those all the time around here--basically to say, ``Here is what I, a policymaker, think should be done.'' Secondly, this is not without precedent. This body has in the past voted on sense-of-the Congress amendments and resolutions that have told the Fed what we believe they should do. Third, I heard it said that we should not be politicizing the Fed. With that I wholeheartedly agree. But article I, section 8 of the Constitution gives the power to coin money and regulate the value thereof to the Congress of the United States.”