Sherrod Brown

For many of us on this committee, there is nothing bipartisan about privatizing Social Security.

Eighty-five percent of the workforce, 100 million people, have no paid family medical leave.

American families lose nearly $21 billion in wages each year because they do not have access to paid leave.

If we truly value the dignity of work in this country--if we truly value the dignity of work, we need to recognize that paid family leave is something all workers should have the opportunity to earn.

I hope we can count on you when there are members of this committee and there are politicians in this town who love to talk in a deceitful way, frankly, by playing with numbers, about fraud and the Earned Income Tax Credit, always…

It costs more than it raises, and there is obviously evidence for that. I fought against this program at every turn. It is unfair.

If we focus on passing laws that enhance investor confidence instead of undermining it, we end up helping those businesses too.

Senator Van Hollen's proposal would require companies to close loopholes to prevent insider trading.

Senator Jack Reed's bill would promote more disclosure on cybersecurity.

We should be pushing for more shareholder engagement and oversight, for more transparency, not less.

I am particularly concerned about a proposed bill, the Corporate Governance Reform and Transparency Act, which would create structural obstacles for shareholders to hold corporate management accountable.

The short-term focus is painfully obvious when you consider that last year's tax bill sparked a record level of stock buybacks, $480 billion since it passed.

Take Wells Fargo, despite being continually mired in spin, controversy, and scandal, they boosted their CEO's pay by 36 percent last year to $17 million.

All too often, it seems corporate boards and executives focus more on preserving their job and maximizing and enhancing their compensation than on investing in their companies and their workers, and their communities.

Something that is shameful and embarrasses all of us as members of this government.

That is just Part D, not everyone. That is not everyone we need to protect, so work with us on that.

The situation continues, of course, to be extremely troubling to anyone paying attention.

My Stop Price Gouging Act would give the government the tools it needs to hold these bad actors accountable.

The government needs tools to prevent these companies from jacking up the price of lifesaving drugs.

Because Medicare cannot negotiate drug prices, it seems some unscrupulous companies see that as an open door to gouge the government and to gouge all the rest of us too.

The fact that there is absolutely no repercussion for a company that engages in this type of predatory behavior is a problem surely that contributes to our broken drug pricing system.

Senator Grassley and I want to get this bill signed into law.

I often say, if we do not address unfairly traded steel imports now, China and other countries will just move down the supply chain.

Don't you want the banks to be prepared for what they were not prepared for in 2007 and 2008?

It is just one thing after another we see you doing and Vice Chair Quarles doing and probably the FDIC starting to do, one thing after another that the banks ask for.