[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 20]
[House]
[Pages 27824-27825]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1215
                    HOLDING WALL STREET ACCOUNTABLE

  (Mr. CARNAHAN asked and was given permission to address the House

[[Page 27825]]

for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. CARNAHAN. Policies of poor regulation and lax oversight of our 
financial system came to a head 1 year ago, greatly contributing to the 
worst financial crisis this country has experienced since the Great 
Depression. Over the past year, we have made tough choices and taken 
firm steps to bring our economy back from the brink, but there is still 
much more work to do on the path to recovery, including enacting 
comprehensive reform on how Wall Street works, to protect Main Street 
and American families.
  As we move forward, we must hold Wall Street accountable by making 
commonsense reforms to our financial regulatory system that will help 
prevent such a crisis from ever happening again. As we rebuild our 
economy, we must assure Wall Street can't take risks that jeopardize 
the whole economy: businesses, large and small, and family budgets, 
savings and retirements.
  Financial regulatory reform will put procedures in place to make sure 
taxpayers will never again have to bail out too-big-to-fail 
institutions who take on irresponsible risk. It also restores 
accountability and transparency so that the problems are recognized and 
fixed before they threaten the entire economy as well as outlaw many of 
the egregious practices that led to the worst financial crisis in 
decades.

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