Political Quotes

“Madam President, before last year, the committee I chair and one of the committees on which the Presiding Officer sits--the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee--was far too much about Wall Street and far too little about issues that matter to people's lives. We have changed that. Instead of always listening to the biggest banks and their corporate lobbyists, we listen to workers and we listen to their families from all kinds of communities all over the country. Last year, we held the committee's first-ever worker listening session where, as hard as it was for all of us, no Senator asked questions. We just heard from witnesses. We heard from workers--about a half-dozen workers--who just told us their story. We know that workers power our economy. We heard from workers from all kinds of backgrounds, working all kinds of jobs. Some worked for banks, others worked for large tech companies, and some for other corporations. They talked about wage theft. They talked about being laid off during a pandemic with no severance pay. They talked about the danger in their workplaces. They talked about how, in some cases, their companies busted their unions. Their stories make it clear that the real harm the Wall Street business model does is to workers' lives. Yesterday, we held our second listening session, this time with renters from around the country whose homes are owned by deep-pocketed investors like corporate landlords and private equity funds.…”