On the recordMay 11, 2010
I thank my colleague, Senator Hutchison, for her great leadership on this issue. We have worked together from the beginning on this amendment, and you can see there is support for this amendment from the Lone Star State to the North Star State, spanning this country--as you look at the many States across this country that truly believe it is important to have the regional Federal Reserve involved in decisions, not have anything and everything concentrated in Washington and New York City, which we believe got us into lots of this trouble in the first place. The amendment we have offered is important because what it does is seek to preserve a system that ensures that the institution charged with our Nation's monetary policy has a connection to Main Street, not just Wall Street--Main Street in Benson, MN; Main Street in Austin, TX; Main Street in Denver, CO. That is what we are talking about. As I have said before, Main Street banks pretty much stayed away from the high flying, way-too-risky deals of the past decade, and when the pavement on Wall Street began to buckle and collapse, these banks-- these small community banks--did not panic and run to Washington with tin cups and outstretched hands. Like the rest of Main Street, they suffered because of bad bets made on Wall Street. But they kept doing their work. They kept serving their customers.
