[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 104 (Tuesday, July 7, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4688-S4689]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS
By Mr. BOOZMAN (for himself and Mr. Cotton):
S. 1707. A bill to designate the Federal building located at 617
Walnut Street in Helena, Arkansas, as the ``Jacob Trieber Federal
Building, United States Post Office, and United States Court House'';
to the Committee on Environment and Public Works.
Mr. BOOZMAN. Mr. President, the Honorable Jacob Trieber, of Helena,
AR, known as a ``genius lawyer and jurist,'' served as the first Jewish
Federal judge in the United States. Born on October 6, 1853, in
Raschkow, Prussia, a young Jacob Trieber and his family escaped the
growing anti-Semitism in Prussia and moved to the United States. In a
few short years they established their homestead and a family store in
Helena, AR. In 1873, he began to study law, and 3 years later entered
the Arkansas Bar. In 1897, he was appointed U.S. Attorney for the
Eastern District of Arkansas in Little Rock. Three years later, on July
26, 1900, President William McKinley appointed Jacob Trieber to the
Federal bench, where for 27 years Judge Trieber served on the U.S.
Circuit Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas. Judge Trieber was
committed to equal justice for all, and ruled for equality for African
Americans and women. Judge Trieber had astounding foresight. Many of
his rulings were important to civil rights and wildlife conservation.
Judge Trieber was also committed to his local Arkansas community and
served as an elected official on the Helena City Council and as the
Phillips County treasurer. Judge Trieber played an influential role in
saving the Old State House and establishing the Arkansas State
Tuberculosis Sanatorium. In honor of Judge Jacob Trieber, Senator
Cotton and I are introducing this legislation that designates the
Federal Building in Helena-West Helena, Arkansas, the ``Jacob Trieber
Federal Building, United States Post Office, and Court House.'' Judge
Trieber's name will appropriately mark this building and stand as a
symbol of his significant work for not only the people of Arkansas, but
for the entire United States.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be
printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the text of the bill was ordered to be
printed in the Record, as follows:
S. 1707
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. JACOB TRIEBER FEDERAL BUILDING, UNITED STATES POST
OFFICE, AND UNITED STATES COURT HOUSE.
(a) Designation.--The Federal building located at 617
Walnut Street in Helena, Arkansas, shall be known and
designated as the ``Jacob Trieber Federal Building, United
States Post Office, and United States Court House''.
(b) References.--Any reference in a law, map, regulation,
document, paper, or other record of the United States to the
Federal building referred to in subsection (a) shall be
deemed to be a reference to the ``Jacob Trieber Federal
Building, United States Post Office, and United States Court
House''.
[[Page S4689]]
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By Ms. WARREN (for herself, Mr. McCain, Mr. King, and Ms.
Cantwell):
S. 1709. A bill to reduce risks to the financial system by limiting
banks' ability to engage in certain risky activities and limiting
conflicts of interest, to reinstate certain Glass-Steagall Act
protections that were repealed by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, and for
other purposes; to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban
Affairs.
Ms. WARREN. Mr. President, I rise today to speak in support of the
21st Century Glass-Steagall Act. I am honored to join Senators McCain,
Cantwell, and King in introducing this bill.
Washington is a partisan place and this Congress has its share of
partisan bills, but we have all joined together because we all want a
more stable economy that works not just for those at the top but for
everyone.
Seven years ago, Wall Street's high-risk bets brought our economy to
its knees. The Dallas Fed estimates that the total cost of the crash
was $14 trillion. Millions of families lost their homes. Millions of
people lost their savings. Millions of people lost their jobs. And even
today, millions of hard-working, play-by-the-rules people are still
struggling to survive.
Over the past 7 years, we have made some real progress dialing back
the risk of a future crisis. But despite that progress, the biggest
banks continue to threaten the economy. The biggest banks are
collectively much bigger today than they were 7 years ago. They
continue to engage in dangerous, high-risk practices. And with each new
headline and subsequent legal settlement, it becomes clearer that they
keep chasing profits even if it means breaking the law.
The big banks weren't always allowed to take on big risks while
enjoying the benefits of taxpayer guarantees. Four years after the 1929
Wall Street crash, Congress passed the Glass-Steagall Act, which is
best known for separating investment banks and their risk-taking from
commercial banks that manage savings accounts, checking accounts, and
offer other banking services.
For 50 years, Glass-Steagall played a central role in keeping our
country safe. Traditional banking stayed separate from high-risk Wall
Street banking. There wasn't a single major financial crisis, and the
financial sector helped contribute to a sustained, broad-based economic
growth that helped build America's middle class. But the big
traditional banks wanted the higher profits they could get from taking
more risks, and investors in the big investment banks wanted access to
the low-cost, insured deposits of traditional banks, so they teamed up
to try to tear down Glass-Steagall's wall. Starting in the 1980s,
regulators of the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of
the Currency buckled under industry pressure and began poking bigger
and bigger holes in the wall between investment and commercial banking,
and, after 12 separate attempts, Congress repealed most of Glass-
Steagall in 1999.
The 21st Century Glass-Steagall Act will rebuild the wall between
commercial banks and investment banks, separating traditional banks
that offer savings and checking accounts and that are insured by the
FDIC from their riskier counterparts on Wall Street. Banks can choose:
Take big risks using investors' money or be very careful using
depositors' money--but no more mixing the two.
The 21st Century Glass-Steagall Act also fills in the holes the
regulators punched in the original Glass-Steagall, and it recognizes
that the financial markets have become more complicated since the
1930s, so it covers products that did not exist when Glass-Steagall was
originally passed.
By itself, the 21st Century Glass-Steagall Act will not end too big
to fail and implicit government subsidies, but it will make financial
institutions smaller, safer, and move us in the right direction. By
separating depository institutions from riskier activities, large
financial institutions will shrink in size and won't be able to rely on
FDIC insurance as a safety net for their high-risk activities. It will
stop the game these banks have played for far too long--heads, the big
banks win and take all the profits; tails, the taxpayers lose and get
stuck with the bill.
Our proposal has an added benefit--it is simple. It doesn't require
thousands of pages of new rules. And better still, if we rebuilt the
wall between commercial banks and investment banks, we could even cut
back on some of the other rules we have in place to stop big banks from
taking on too much risk.
If financial institutions actually have to face the consequences of
their business decisions, if they cannot rely on government insurance
to subsidize their riskiest activities, then the investors in those
institutions will have a stronger incentive to closely monitor those
risks before they get out of hand and take down the entire economy.
Government regulators could play a more limited role, and that is an
outcome everyone should like.
It has now been 7 years since the great financial crash. Most of the
banks that were too big to fail in 2008 are even bigger now. Shortly
after they were bailed out by the American taxpayers, these banks once
again started raking in billions of dollars in profits. In fact, in
2014 they posted two of their most profitable quarters in the last 20
years. Between 2010 and 2013, the median compensation for a big-bank
CEO was about $15 million a year while median household income in the
United States during that same period--that is, income for the whole
family--was barely above $50,000. The big banks and their executives
have recovered handsomely from the crisis they helped create while too
many other Americans are still scraping to get by.
We weren't sent to Washington to work for the big banks. It is time
for a banking system that serves the best interests of the American
people, not just those few at the top. The 21st Century Glass-Steagall
Act is an important step in the right direction, and I ask my
colleagues to join me in supporting this bipartisan measure to
strengthen our economy.
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