Hon. Michael G. Oxley: “I rise in support of H.R. 10, the Financial Services Act of 1999. This is indeed an historic occasion, something that…”

“I rise in support of H.R. 10, the Financial Services Act of 1999. This is indeed an historic occasion, something that many of us have worked on for a number of years. As a matter of fact, this is by my count the 10th time in the last 20 years that we have sought to bring our financial laws into the modern world as we enter the 21st century. So here is hoping that number 11 is the charm. Building on the progress we made last year through the help of many people that I see here on the floor, including our good friend, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Boehner), the gentleman from Virginia (Chairman Bliley), the gentleman from Iowa (Chairman Leach), the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Dingell), the gentleman from New York (Mr. Towns) and others, that we passed this bill by one vote in the House. I suspect this year it will be far different and it will be a large vote, because the time has come for financial services modernization in this Congress and indeed in this country. We have arrived at a point where just about everybody, including those on the opposite side of specific issues on the op-sub issue, for example, agree that the country's financial regulations crafted during the Depression years of the 1930s need to be brought up to date. The Glass-Steagall Act has outlived its useful purpose. It now serves only as the cause of inefficiency in the markets as our markets change dramatically.”