[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 66 (Wednesday, May 5, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3119-S3120]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      FINANCIAL REGULATORY REFORM

  Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I thank the distinguished majority leader. 
He

[[Page S3120]]

has shown remarkable endurance as well as patience over the last 2 
years. The health care debate went on for more than a year, considering 
its beginning, and we finally ended up passing the legislation.
  We have a lot of other matters to deal with--obviously, the economic 
crisis. We are now on the financial reform bill. My hope is--I am not 
making any procedural requests--based on conversations we had late last 
evening and again early this morning--and I think Senator Shelby shares 
this hope with me, and we are working as we speak here--that we might 
be able to have a vote on the Boxer amendment sometime around 11, 
11:30, and a vote on Senator Shelby's proposal, on which I will join 
him, maybe around 12:30. Then we will be able to take up--not to have 
to vote on them but agree to them unanimously--the Snowe amendments. 
There is a Hutchison-Tester proposal that I have endorsed as well and 
that I think all of us believe is a good addition to the bill. My hope 
is that in the next couple of hours we will move forward and start the 
process. There are more controversial amendments Members want to raise. 
They should have the right to do that and have adequate time to debate 
their ideas.
  I know this has been trying for people. People are exhausted. It has 
been a long Congress. We have taken on some major issues. People are 
understandably tired, and that situation can lead to the frustration 
people feel.
  I noticed in this morning's headlines that the market declined by 2 
percent yesterday, not because of something that happened here but 
something that happened thousands of miles away in a small country in 
the Mediterranean--again, an indication of how global our economic 
situation is, how precarious it is, where events in one part of the 
world can affect all of us. It is all the more important we try to 
establish some sound rules for the 21st century. The last time we 
established in a broad sense any rules for the structure of our 
financial institutions was almost 100 years ago, coming off the 19th 
century and the early part of the 20th century. Here we are at the end 
of the first decade of the 21st century, and, as we painfully learned, 
we are in desperate need to reform the financial structure of our 
country, having seen what occurred over the last 2 years--the job 
losses, the home foreclosure numbers, the decline in home values as 
well as retirement incomes, the loss of household wealth. We don't need 
to hear the numbers. We have lived it.

  The majority of Americans are still struggling today as we speak. 
They are anxious for us to respond to the situation with as much 
thought and care as we possibly can, to see to it that we don't leave 
our Nation vulnerable once again to the kinds of economic decisions and 
failures that caused our Nation to come to the brink of a meltdown 
financially. These are challenging times. I know it is difficult, and 
there are strong feelings about how to proceed. But that should not 
serve as a barrier to us doing our job, to making the decisions each of 
us was elected to perform.
  Again, I appreciate immensely the patience of the majority leader and 
his staff and others and of my colleagues, many of whom have amendments 
they want to offer to this bill. I want to give them the chance to do 
that so they can be heard, both Democrats and Republicans. I am 
particularly grateful to Members who have sought ways to offer 
amendments we can agree to and accept as part of the legislation. That 
is a very constructive way to engage in the debate. There are other 
amendments people believe strongly in that will not be resolvable in 
the sense of accommodating them, in which case we will have to vote for 
or against to decide whether to include them in this financial reform 
package. But that process ought to go forward with civility, with the 
passion people have for the issue but with the civility to respect each 
other and the needs of this institution.
  This is not the only matter this Congress needs to deal with. I know 
the majority leader has talked about unemployment benefits. They will 
still be needed in the coming weeks. We have the tax extenders which 
are critically important. We may have a Supreme Court nomination coming 
along. The President has sent up the names of three people to serve on 
the Federal Reserve Board, which will be very important as well 
considering the economic implications. We have appropriations bills. 
This is an important bill, but it isn't the only work the Senate needs 
to accomplish before we adjourn in the fall. My hope is that people 
will come, engage in the debate, allow for adequate time to be heard, 
and then decide to move yes or no on these matters.
  Again, I am hopeful that within the next hour or so we will be able 
to get this process moving where we can actually start casting votes on 
ideas, particularly the one Senator Shelby and I will be offering.
  I hope that in the minds of most, if not all, the too-big-to-fail 
proposition is no longer a question on this bill. I don't believe it 
is, anyway, but there are those who do. To the extent we can satisfy 
them with additions to the bill that will make that more clear, that is 
a great step forward. I am confident that can be done in the next hour 
and a half or so and then move on with the various other amendments 
people have on the bill.
  In the meantime, I urge Members who do have amendments to come over, 
maybe start talking about their amendments, start educating the offices 
about what they want to do with their proposals. I have members of our 
staff here as well to look at the amendments and, where possible, if we 
can accept the amendment or modify the amendment and make it acceptable 
to us, certainly I reach out to my Republican colleagues to see how 
they feel about it, that might even move the process further along. 
Between now and the votes, this time ought not to be dead time but time 
people use as well to help us advance the cause of this piece of 
legislation.
  With that, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. McCONNELL. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum 
call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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