On the recordJuly 15, 2010
Mr. President, I will oppose the conference version of the Dodd-Frank bill. While it includes some positive provisions, it fails its most important mission, namely to ensure that taxpayers, consumers, businesses, and workers won't be victims of another financial crisis like the one which a few years ago triggered the worst recession our Nation has experienced since the Great Depression. The measure certainly contains many good things, but those positive provisions do not outweigh the bill's serious failings. Of the several significant flaws in the bill, I will focus on two--the failure to reinstate the well- proven protections first established by the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 that were repealed a decade ago, and the failure to firmly and finally address the essential problem posed by too-big-to-fail financial institutions. Earlier this year I was pleased to cosponsor a bill introduced by the Senator from Washington, Ms. Cantwell, to restore the safeguards that were enacted as part of the famous Glass-Steagall Act of 1933. And I was also pleased to cosponsor her amendment to the Financial Regulatory Reform bill, which was based on that legislation. It went to the very core of what the underlying bill we are considering seeks to address.…





