[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 67 (Thursday, May 6, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Page S3296]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      FINANCIAL REGULATORY REFORM

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, last night, the Senate took a strong 
stance on protecting taxpayers from the unintended consequences of a 
bill that was originally meant to hold Wall Street accountable for its 
mistakes.
  Put aside for a moment the latest talking points the other side is 
using about Republicans. Our goal throughout the debate has been to 
protect taxpayers who got burned during the last crisis, and last 
night's vote showed that those efforts are beginning to yield results.
  A $50 billion fund for failing financial firms that would have 
distorted the market by encouraging the same kinds of risky investments 
that led to the last crisis is now out of the bill.
  A provision that would have given investors in failing firms special 
treatment is out. Congress will now have to approve any government 
effort to ensure bank debt. So improvements are being made to this 
financial regulatory bill in the right direction.
  Now it is time to focus on what has emerged as another central point 
of contention, and that is the new government bureaucracy this bill 
would create over at the Fed. The first thing to know about this new 
agency is that Congress would not have any power over it. The second 
thing to know is what it would do. Some of that is still vague, but the 
ambiguities are part of the problem.
  What we do know is that this new agency would be authorized to gather 
information on banking and purchasing patterns and on anyone--anyone--
operating in consumer financial markets. One provision, section 1071, 
could lead financial institutions to maintain a record on the number 
and dollar amount that each customer deposits at bank branches and 
ATMs.
  Now, understandably, a lot of Americans and a lot of small business 
owners have serious concerns about all of this. They are also concerned 
about the potential of this bill to further dry up credit at a time 
when they are trying to dig themselves out of a recession.
  We received a letter just yesterday from groups representing hundreds 
of thousands of businesses--from florists to orthodontists to builders 
to car dealers--all concerned about the potential impact this new 
agency would have.
  Now, let me state the obvious: None of these businesses had anything 
whatsoever to do with the financial crisis. None of these businesses 
had anything to do with the financial crisis. Why on Earth would we 
want to punish them for the reckless behavior we saw on Wall Street? 
Why on Earth would we want to punish these small businesses for the 
reckless behavior we saw on Wall Street?
  The fact is, this agency is more about using this crisis as an 
opportunity to slip a vast new European-style regulatory bureaucracy 
past the American people than it is about holding Wall Street 
accountable.
  I say let's focus on Wall Street and the GSEs and leave ordinary 
Americans out of this. Let's put the middle-class families and small 
business owners who shouldered the burden of this crisis ahead of the 
bureaucratic wish lists in Washington. At a moment of near double-digit 
unemployment and exploding debts and deficits, let's have at least one 
Democratic idea for expanding the reach of government on the shelf.
  Later today, the Senate will have an opportunity to blunt the 
potential impact of this agency. Senator Shelby and I have joined 
several cosponsors on an amendment that would deflect the focus of this 
bill from Main Street and back to Wall Street where it belongs. Let's 
take the bill off Main Street and send it back to Wall Street where it 
belongs.
  The National Federation of Independent Business supports our 
amendment because, in the place of this new bureaucratic agency, it 
would establish a new division within the FDIC that would oversee 
mortgage originators and other big financial service providers. That is 
where the target should lie--not on the backs of America's small 
businesses and middle-class Americans who expected to be protected by 
the bill, not punished by it.
  I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle not to lose our focus 
in this debate. I also urge everyone to support the Shelby-McConnell 
amendment.
  Madam President, I yield the floor.

                          ____________________