I thank the chairman for yielding time. I thank the Senator for his diligence, particularly in the area of the derivatives market and the fact that this legislation will be the first time--the first time--the over-the-counter derivatives market in this country will be regulated. The fact that Congress made a mistake and said hands off to derivatives in 2000, and then an $80 trillion market exploded into what is today a $600 trillion dark market--the chairman has now made sure that for the first time ever, over-the-counter derivatives will be regulated. That means for the first time over-the-counter derivatives will have to be exchange-traded, which means there will be transparency. It is the first time over-the-counter derivatives will have to be cleared, which means a third party will have to validate whether there is real money behind these transactions. It is the first time the CFTC will be able to enforce aggregate position limits across all exchanges, which means you cannot hide this dark market derivative money on some exchange that is not properly regulated or try to make the market across all exchanges. It is the first time things like the London Loophole will be closed so we cannot have markets and exchanges that are not regulated. So the American people will know something as dangerous as credit default swaps--which brought down our economy--that now for the first time we will have regulation of these over-the-counter derivatives.
Editor's note · Context
Cantwell discusses the regulation of the over-the-counter derivatives market.
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Today, it is the top fire in our nation. That means [the federal government is] going to give us the resources that we need here on the ground.
Technology can play a big role. We have to show people that the connection between the information that we can get, and then the actual action plan that we can put into place, that's where that's where the gaps are.
The next couple of days will be challenging, but we are going to do everything we can to make sure the resources are here and continue to make sure that this issue gets our nation's attention.
If there are people that are overriding the Constitution and not following the Constitution, that would be an area where I would think about [eliminating the filibuster.]





