Joe Morelle

First of all, I appreciate the comments by my distinguished and wholly entertaining colleague, the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Woodall). I do want to just make a couple of points related to his comments. First of all, as the gentleman…

On Wednesday, the Rules Committee met and reported a rule, House Resolution 105, providing for consideration of H.R. 840, the Veterans' Access to Child Care Act, under a structured rule. The rule provides for 1 hour of debate equally…

By direction of the Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 105 and ask for its immediate consideration. The Clerk read the resolution, as follows: H. Res. 105 Resolved, That at any time after adoption of this resolution the Speaker…

Despite all the concerns that we heard from people about raising the minimum wage, it has really been something that has been greeted largely with support.

I am just curious, can you describe how our legal framework has changed regarding those protections and supports for individuals in all aspects of society and how this does impact and necessitates the phasing out of 14(c)?

I was proud to support gradually increasing the minimum wage to $15.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding this valuable hearing to discuss gradually raising the minimum wage.

If I might just followup with you, Dr. Zipperer, obviously, people have testified it is important that the Raise the Wage Act have a gradual increase.

This is a frustrating time in Washington, in which most of us have been focused on the ongoing government shutdown. But I want to take a moment to talk about something positive the House is doing to protect everyday Americans across this…

I regrettably missed the vote on S. 3191, the Civil Rights Cold Case Records Collection Act, on Friday, December 21, 2018. I had intended to vote ``yes'' on rollcall vote No. 482. PERSONAL EXPLANATION

I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize someone we all know well, a true American patriot, the Honorable Louise M. Slaughter. It is truly a privilege to have introduced H.R. 7293 honoring…

You contrast that with the financial services arm of AIG, unregulated, and by virtue of the Commodity Futures Modernization Act unregulated by the states and by the Federal Government.

I would point out that, as it relates to state regulation of insurance companies, that we have reserving requirements and insolvency tests.

I would argue a couple of things.

What worries me that everybody is going to have these position limits, on-exchange off-exchanges, that means that market makers... could be caught up in this.

I have a lot of sympathy for that, but I suspect that maybe a lot of what you want to accomplish can be accomplished by simply having CDSs cleared.

Well, thank you Congressman. I just would point out, as I mentioned in my testimony, that if you look at AIG from the perspective of the state-regulated companies, AIG has many state-regulated insurance subsidiaries.

I happen to believe that is a specious argument, and that it is the requirement of this argument to ferret out potentially illegal activity and protect the citizens of this nation.

I just can't imagine the regulatory arbitrage problems that we would have if we broadened this to 50 jurisdictions within the United States.

It seems to me that if one institution needs hedging and they go to A and A says sure, I will hedge with you, then A has this risk.

I would just like to note that the argument that naked CDSs, as I would define them, that don't provide any hedge at all but are purely speculative, aren't a tool for risk management since there is no risk on the part of the buyer of the…

I think it is, Mr. Chairman, and we would certainly love to work with you and the Committee and Congress on that.

I believe we do, and the superintendents of the various states together with NAIC, which is their organization, in conjunction with NCOIL would certainly be able to put standards in place that would meet that requirement.

Those who have no insurable interest, frankly, I would continue to argue, are purely speculative, and add nothing of value to the real economy.

I certainly don't dispute the fact that credit default swaps play an important role in our financial institutions, but they are insurance, they are a financial guaranty and ought to be treated as such.