[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 74 (Monday, May 17, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3793-S3794]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           WALL STREET REFORM

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, we all know how Wall Street brought our 
economy to the brink of collapse nearly 2 years ago. Our financial 
system let traders gamble away other people's money with little risk 
and large reward. The system said to big bankers: If you win, enjoy 
your jackpot. If you lose, don't worry; taxpayers will bail you out. It 
is quite a rewarding deal for Wall Street but a pretty raw deal for 
everyone else. We have seen firsthand the dangers of that arrangement. 
When the bottom collapsed, 8 million Americans lost their jobs. The 
typical family lost $100,000 in savings and home equity. The problem is 
that it is still the way the system works today, and every new day we 
don't act, we take the chance it will happen again.
  The bill empowers consumers and holds Wall Street accountable to make 
sure history never repeats itself. Ours is a strong bill. The American 
people not only overwhelmingly support this legislation, it is 
legislation they loudly demand. But it won't do anyone any good until 
we send it to the President for his signature. If there is a strategy 
of delay involved in this--and I certainly hope there isn't--I have 
said before that as soon as tonight, we could file cloture and hold a 
final vote this week. This cannot be delayed any longer.
  I appreciate the good work of so many Senators to make a tough Wall 
Street reform bill even tougher. I extend my appreciation to the 
Presiding Officer, who has been involved in a significant number of the 
amendments we have tried to work through. His experience in the 
business community has certainly strengthened the bill.
  So far, the Senate has voted for amendments to strengthen the bill 
and has voted against efforts to weaken it. Democrats and Republicans 
have voted

[[Page S3794]]

for each other's amendments. This is the way it should be. However, the 
end must come. The time has come to begin work sending this to 
conference so we can have a bill to go to the President.
  The Senate has voted to reject loopholes for Wall Street lobbyists. 
We rejected an amendment that would leave the door open for more 
taxpayer bailouts. We denied carve-outs for those who game the system 
for their own financial gain.
  The message is clear: We must guarantee taxpayers that they will 
never again be asked to bail out big banks. We must protect families' 
life savings and seniors' pensions. We must ensure no bank can become 
too big to fail. And we must make sure the system is more transparent, 
which will let us rein in the risky bets before it is too late.
  I remind all of my colleagues that the amendment process can continue 
after cloture is filed and after it is invoked. I hope the two managers 
of this bill, Chairman Dodd and Ranking Member Shelby, can continue 
working on amendments that will strengthen these urgent and overdue 
reforms.
  Another reason we have to finish sooner rather than later is that we 
have such important work to do this month. At the top of that list is a 
new jobs bill--a jobs bill that will cut taxes for middle-class 
families and stimulate small businesses by giving small businesses tax 
cuts.
  Also, we have two supplemental appropriations bills. Senator Inouye 
and Senator Cochran are going to combine those, as the two managers of 
that legislation, so that when they come to the floor, there will only 
be one supplemental appropriations bill. They will join the FEMA 
supplemental--because of all of the natural disasters around the 
country--with the war funding bill we also need to do. We have scores 
of nominees awaiting confirmation. We hope to be able to complete some 
of that before we leave here for the recess, so I hope both sides can 
find a way to work together to get these bills done.
  I repeat: We need to finish the bill that is on the floor. We need to 
do the war funding appropriations bill that is going to be combined 
with FEMA, and of course we have to do the jobs bill before the first 
of the month.

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