Barney Frank: “This was a matter brought to me by the gentleman from Georgia who just spoke, and his Georgia colleague, the gentleman…”

“This was a matter brought to me by the gentleman from Georgia who just spoke, and his Georgia colleague, the gentleman, Mr. Scott, who's a member of the Financial Services Committee, because of their understandable concern that the impact bank failures could have in the State they represent. I am very supportive. I do want to make clear that nothing in the passage of this should be taken as a criticism of the FDIC. I have been very impressed with the leadership that was given to the FDIC by the recently retired chair, Sheila Bair, an appointee of President Bush, who was not only, I think, a first-rate chair at the FDIC, but gave us a great deal of her useful advice as we dealt with financial reform. Bank failures are an unfortunate fact of life. We don't want them to be done unnecessarily, but neither can they be avoided. And, obviously, in the overwhelming majority of cases, the problem is in the business community. The right to fail, as we must remind ourselves, is part of the right to do business. Having said that, I agree that what the FDIC does should be very transparent. And there is one aspect of what the FDIC does, not directly affected in this bill, but it's one that I think you have bipartisan agreement on in the committee, namely, and I will mention this because of its impact on our economy.…”