Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 1667, the ``Financial Institution Bankruptcy Act of 2017.'' In 2008, the United States economy nearly collapsed as a direct result of lending practices in the housing market that were predatory, unsafe, and in many cases fraudulent. Investments in toxic securities created a cycle of failure in the housing market: the declining health of the market undermined the value of these securities, which, in turn, devastated the housing market and caused the failure of several of the nation's largest financial institutions. With the financial system in near collapse, large financial institutions were essentially able to ``blackmail'' the government because these banks were so large that there was no way to break them apart, as then-FDIC Chair Sheila Bair testified in 2009. Although the true hardship caused by this widespread fraud is incalculable, we do know that it erased $10 trillion of household wealth and caused 8 million Americans to lose their jobs and 5 million Americans to lose their homes. Rhode Island, my home state, was hit particularly hard by the recession. When I took office, the unemployment rate in Rhode Island hovered at 11.2%, the fifth highest in the country. In the wake of this economic disaster, the Dodd-Frank Act was enacted to comprehensively reform the financial system.…”