Bruce F. Vento: “I rise with concern for this rule and significant concern for the outcome of this product, based on the amendments and…”

“I rise with concern for this rule and significant concern for the outcome of this product, based on the amendments and status that exists. We are really facing here a bill that was not written in the Committee on Banking and Financial Services, not written in the Committee on Commerce, a 400-page bill and a smorgasbord of amendments to it that, frankly, will tend to grow if, indeed, some of these amendments are added and as consumed could provide acute indigestion. Mr. Speaker, I am for banking modernization; I am for deregulation. But the fact of the matter is that what has worked itself into this bill in a haphazard manner and a muddled manner is obviously, on one hand, we claim to be repealing Glass-Steagall, which, of course, the regulators have helped us along with over the years; and the fact is that there is a mixture today just in the very instruments of loans, of annuities, and securities which constitute our financial entities, so much so that they are almost a distinction without a difference. I am for modernization, but the fact is that this bill is really, and it is still, in a state of denial. It is like finally we dropped somebody in the middle of the ocean; they admit they are in the water, but they have not got the ability to swim, or to take a boat for that matter. Maybe the boat they are taking here is referred to as the H.R. Titanic. The fact is that this bill is still in denial. It is a grudging permission.”