Sherrod Brown

Congress has been very gracious in providing funding for the Board.

I thank you for putting your private sector jobs aside and private sector work to serve the public.

I am thrilled to see you here today.

I was surprised to see Acting Comptroller Noreika, understanding his short time there and short horizon to stay there, that he raised issues with this rule so late in a 2-year-long process and mentioned safety and soundness.

I would be happy to join Senator Kennedy in supporting your reappointment.

It means protecting consumers. It means improving the economic security of communities of color.

The status quo is not a viable option.

Too many Americans continue to struggle to make ends meet.

History teaches us that when Congress does big things, labor law reform and Social Security with Franklin Roosevelt, in 1965 Lyndon Johnson with Medicare, the Congress 2 or 3 years later goes back to those issues bipartisanly and makes…

Our focus should be on growing a stronger economy for everyone, in every part of the country.

If the rule were likely to impact the safety of the U.S. banking system, do you think it would be unusual that no staff of any of the prudential regulators would raise concerns about the rulemaking process?

The biggest banks are making record profits.

Weakening safeguards to boost bank profits... will only hasten the next one.

Protecting small lender access to the secondary market is an important area of bipartisan agreement.

In a Senate that looks dysfunctional to many on the outside and to many on the inside, it really was a terrific effort, 97-2.

Do you commit to being independent from the Administration?

As Pope Francis said, admonished his parish priests, 'Go out and smell like the flock.'

Perhaps, as Lincoln said, we all need to get out and get our public opinion baths more than we do as elected officials and as regulators.

I appreciated your honesty, but I was disappointed by the answer.

We cannot stop the flow of jobs to Mexico without addressing Mexican labor standards.

We know what causes outsourcings: it is low wages, it is exploited workers, it is weak or nonexistent or unenforced environmental protections.

I urged, first, the President to secure commitments on labor and environmental standards before the talks begin.

I could not agree more that a new approach is needed, and I hope you will follow through on that commitment during the NAFTA talks.

Whether it is NAFTA or any agreement, the importance of trade, getting trade talks right, right from the beginning, cannot be underestimated.

They need to know that that is a condition of any real progress in these agreements.