[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 67 (Thursday, May 6, 2010)]
[House]
[Pages H3205-H3206]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            FINANCIAL REFORM

  (Mr. GUTIERREZ asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. GUTIERREZ. Madam Speaker, the old joke around Congress is that 
the Senate is Washington's legislative hospice: a place where good 
bills and ideas go to die a slow and quiet death.
  I had really hoped that, given the necessity for financial reform 
today, this joke would have been proven wrong. Unfortunately, many of 
the reforms passed in the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection 
Act of 2009, including strong consumer protections and much-needed 
reforms to the industry, are being watered down.
  The latest victim of this appeasement and the most egregious example 
of the Senate's appeasement strategy

[[Page H3206]]

for Wall Street lobbyists is here, which is the removal this week of 
the dissolution fund. I made sure that this dissolution fund was 
included in the House bill. It was intended to act much like your car 
insurance by discouraging risky behavior.
  Let's say that a bank like Goldman Sachs drove a new Ferrari down the 
road with little regard for traffic or public safety. It would then be 
assessed more in fees to the fund than a bank that drives safely and 
observes all the posted signals.
  Think again. Under the new plan in the Senate, Goldman can drive its 
Ferrari any way it wants, and when it crashes, the American public will 
have to pay.

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