[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 137 (Thursday, October 17, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Page S10653]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                 RETIREMENT OF CONGRESSMAN JOHN LaFALCE

  Mr. SARBANES. Mr. President, Congressman John LaFalce, the ranking 
member of the House Committee on Financial Services, has announced his 
retirement after 28 years of dedicated service to his constituents in 
upstate New York and to our country.
  I rise today to acknowledge and applaud the interests and 
accomplishments of John LaFalce during his long and productive career 
in Congress, and to wish him the very best in his future endeavors. We 
served together in the House, and we worked closely on a bicameral 
basis for many years on a variety of financial, consumer, and community 
development issues.
  By way of background, John LaFalce was first elected to Congress from 
the 32nd Congressional District of New York in 1974 as part of the 
``Watergate class.'' His victory was the first by a Democrat since 
1912. His constituents then had the wisdom to return him to Washington 
as their representative 14 times. Since his arrival in the House, his 
committee assignments have included the Committee on Banking, Finance 
and Urban Affairs--the counterpart to the Senate committee I am honored 
to chair--and the Committee on Small Business, which he chaired from 
1987 until 1994. He was elected ranking Democrat on the renamed 
Committee on Financial Services in 1998.
  I know firsthand of John's passion for public policy--and the 
intellectual vigor he brought to its formulation--because of our common 
interests and frequent collaboration in such areas as consumer 
protection, housing and community development, the safety and soundness 
of the financial system, corporate accountability, financial 
modernization, and the effectiveness of international lending programs.
  Let me offer some illustrations. Congressman LaFalce was a leader in 
the longstanding efforts to modernize the Nation's complex financial 
services system to promote competition between financial intermediaries 
while protecting consumers and ensuring that financial institutions 
continue to contribute to community development and provide services to 
unserved and underserved communities and populations. Early in 1999, 
working closely with the Clinton Treasury Department, John helped to 
jump-start serious consideration of financial modernization legislation 
by garnering administration support for the first time in the recent 
history of that debate. That bill provided the basis for the eventual 
bipartisan agreement that led to enactment of Gramm-Leach-Bliley, 
referred to by The New York Times as ``landmark legislation. . . . The 
pre-eminent legislative accomplishment of the year.''
  More recently, John has been a leading advocate for strong investor 
protections. He sounded some of the earliest and most accurate alarms 
about conflicts of interest by investment professionals, questionable 
accounting practices, inadequate enforcement efforts by the SEC, and 
inadequate agency funding. The colossal failures of Enron, WorldCom, 
Global Crossing, and other firms, and the devastating impact on 
investors and on the working men and women of those companies, have 
more than justified John's concerns.
  John was a prime mover of the sweeping corporate accounting reform 
legislation signed into law by President Bush on July 25, 2002. John 
actually introduced in the House in early February of this year the 
first comprehensive legislative solution offered to address the serious 
problems in the capital markets and corporate boardrooms. John deserves 
the praise he has received from many consumer, investor, and labor 
groups for his leadership in helping to achieve these landmark reforms. 
A comment by AFL-CIO president John Sweeney is typical of the praise 
John received: ``I particularly want to thank Congressman LaFalce, who 
has really stood out these last few months as a leader ready to take on 
powerful Wall Street and big money interests on behalf of working 
families.''
  I want to make one last observation about John's legislative legacy. 
Over the years, he has been a tireless and committed crusader for 
consumers and community development.
  For example, in the area of financial privacy, where John and I have 
worked so closely together, it was legislation that John had introduced 
in 1998 and 1999 that laid the basis for the historic financial privacy 
protections that Congress included within Gramm-Leach-Bliley. Since 
then, John and I have continued to work on new legislation to further 
enhance these financial privacy protections.
  Similarly, John has been a leader in the fight against predatory 
lending. He crafted excellent legislation that would provide real and 
substantive protections for the many homeowners, many of whom are 
elderly, minorities, or immigrants who are financially unsophisticated, 
who fall prey to unscrupulous mortgage lenders and brokers. I have used 
John's bill as a basis for my own legislation here in the Senate.
  John has also been a strong and consistent advocate for the Community 
Reinvestment Act. During the debate surrounding financial modernization 
legislation, we opposed those who wanted to either repeal or undermine 
it. He has been an ardent defender of funding for affordable housing 
and community development and has taken the lead in enacting into law 
important elderly housing and homeless prevention provisions. In 
addition, he has developed major legislative initiatives to expand 
homeownership opportunities, and reform the mortgage loan process.
  I have had the pleasure and privilege of knowing and working closely 
with John for almost three decades. I do not expect his retirement from 
elective office to end either his public service or his significant 
contributions to our Nation. In fact, I have every expectation that 
John LaFalce will continue to be an active, thoughtful, and valuable 
contributor to public debate on critical national issues.
  Finally, I pay tribute to John's staff. John has been the first to 
point out that he has always surrounded himself with talented people. 
Jeanne Roslanowick is an outstanding public servant, and we will miss 
working with her and the rest of his staff.

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