[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 186 (Friday, December 11, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2966]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         WALL STREET REFORM AND CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT OF 2009

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                        HON. PATRICK J. KENNEDY

                            of rhode island

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, December 9, 2009

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 4173) to 
     provide for financial regulatory reform, to protect consumers 
     and investors, to enhance Federal understanding of insurance 
     issues, to regulate the over-the-counter derivatives markets, 
     and for other purposes:

  Mr. KENNEDY. Madam Chair, last fall, after 8 years of the previous 
administration looking the other way while Wall Street and the big 
banks exploited loopholes, we faced a near collapse of our financial 
system. Deregulation and lax oversight allowed Wall Street and big 
banks to gamble with the hard-earned money of the American people, 
compromising our savings and risking our future. Over the last year, 
Congress has had to make difficult, and frankly unpopular, decisions 
that were necessary to rescue our economy from the brink of disaster.
  The Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act will put in place 
the rules to make sure that this doesn't happen again, to protect the 
middle-class Americans who play by the rules from the consequences of 
Wall Street greed. This legislation ends many of the unfair lending 
practices that created predatory mortgages and waves of foreclosure. By 
stopping ``too big to fail'' firms before they threaten to wreak havoc 
on our economy, H.R. 4173 will finally put an end to the era of 
taxpayer-funded bailouts.
  While many aspects of this legislation are important, perhaps its 
most significant achievement is the establishment of an agency whose 
primary mission is to ensure the safety of financial products and look 
out for consumers. For too long, all of our fractured regulatory 
agencies have only looked out for the financial institutions they work 
for. The Consumer Financial Protection Agency will look out for unsafe 
financial products the same way the FDA monitors unsafe medicines or 
the Consumer Product Safety Commission examines our children's toys.
  While we have taken extraordinary actions to correct our economic 
crisis, the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection act takes the 
necessary actions to hold accountable the people responsible for last 
year's crisis and to prevent another crisis in the future.

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