[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 61 (Wednesday, April 28, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2750-S2751]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           WALL STREET REFORM

  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I thank the Senators from Connecticut and 
Alabama for all their hard work on this issue. I am delighted that 
after three votes and 3 full days of pressuring those on the other side 
of the aisle to allow us to at least begin debating this critical bill, 
it appears they have relented. Finally, it appears they are willing to 
listen to not only what Democrats have been saying about the importance 
of a strong new reform bill for Wall Street but what the American 
people have been saying.
  What we have been saying is it is time to hold Wall Street 
accountable. It is time to pass strong reforms that cannot be ignored 
or sidestepped. It is time to end bailouts and give Wall Street the 
responsibility of cleaning up their own mess. It is time credit card 
statements are in plain English, in loan terms that are spelled out. It 
is time for Wall Street to come out of the shadows and into the light 
of day. It is time for negotiations to come out of the back room and on 
to the Senate floor. It is time to put an end to obstruction and begin 
working for American families.
  I am glad we are finally now on this bill. For most American 
families, this debate is not complex; it is simple. It is not about 
derivatives or credit default swaps. It is about fundamental fairness. 
It is a debate about when they walk into a bank to sign a mortgage or 
apply for a credit card or start a retirement plan, are the rules on 
their side? Are they with the big banks or Wall Street?
  For far too long, the financial rules of the road have not favored 
the American people. Instead, they favored big banks and credit card 
companies and Wall Street. For too long they have abused those rules. 
Whether it was gambling with the money in our pension funds or making 
bets they could never cover or peddling mortgages to people they knew 
could never pay them, Wall Street made expensive choices that came at 
the expense of working families. That is exactly the reason we have all 
fought so hard to move forward now with a strong bill.
  It is why we have refused to back down or sit by while it was watered 
down, and it is why we were ready to stay up all night or vote to move 
forward with this bill all week long. It is why we have insisted on a 
bill that includes the strongest protection for consumers ever enacted, 
an end to taxpayer bailouts, and tools to give individuals the 
resources they need to make smart financial decisions because each of 
us knows what the ``anything goes'' rules on Wall Street have meant for 
our States and our constituents.
  Each one of us has talked to people who have been hurt through no 
fault of their own. We have all seen the tremendous cost of Wall 
Street's excesses. In my home State of Washington, it has cost us over 
150,000 jobs. It has cost small businesses access to credit they need 
to grow and hire. It has cost workers their retirement accounts they 
were counting on to carry them through their golden years. It has cost 
students their college savings that would help launch their careers. It 
has cost homeowners the value of their most important asset, as 
neighborhoods have been decimated by foreclosures. It has cost our 
schoolteachers, our police officers, and our communities.
  It has cost young people such as David Corrado of Seattle, whose 
mother, since he was very young, would take $400 out of her paycheck 
and put it toward David's education fund. It was a long-term, smart 
investment she knew would pay off for David's future. When the 
financial crisis occurred, he lost one-third of his college fund, 
$10,000.
  It has also cost older people such as Edward Diaz, who is also from 
Washington State. He was not only laid off from his job of 21 years due 
to the recession, he also lost $100,000 from his 401(k) account. On the 
verge of retirement, Edward tells me he now scours the classifieds 
every day searching for any way to get back to work.
  In the days ahead, as we debate this bill, those are the people we 
have to remember constantly. We have to keep them in mind as we work to 
protect against this happening ever again; the people who, through no 
fault of their own, paid the price for the risks and irresponsible 
behavior of Wall Street. There are people in my State and across the 
country who scrimped and saved and made right decisions and were left 
holding the bag.
  Now is not the time for half measures. The American people are 
looking to us now for real reform and to put progress before politics. 
We have to put people before Wall Street.
  I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant editor of the Daily Digest proceeded to call the roll.
  Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, what is the order?
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senate is in morning business, and 
Senators are able to speak for up to 10 minutes each.
  Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I be allowed 
to

[[Page S2751]]

speak for as much time as I may consume.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mrs. BOXER. Mr. President, thank you very much.

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