On the recordMay 19, 2010
I rise today to express my opposition to S. 3217, the Restoring American Financial Stability Act. I am not opposed to financial regulatory reform, but there is precious little of that in this misnamed bill. No, real financial regulatory reform is something that should have been done a year ago, but, instead, Democratic leaders and the Obama administration opted to focus on a Washington takeover of our Nation's health care system. There are a few parts to the Restoring American Financial Stability Act that are worthy of support. In particular, I believe we need to monitor derivatives to require more capitalization and demand issuers maintain a stake in the game when creating and selling certain financial instruments. However, I think this bill is going to do more harm than good to our economy. It will weaken our financial system rather than strengthen it. Furthermore, it not only preserves the fragmented financial regulatory structure that is already in place but adds even more burdensome, costly, and misguided regulations.
