[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Pages 5723-5724]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         OKLAHOMA CITY BOMBING

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I wish to join the majority leader in 
recognizing the 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing and add 
my voice to the others who have remembered the loss of life we suffered 
on that terrible day. I also extend my sympathy to the survivors and to 
the families of the lost.
  It is impossible for most of us to understand how someone could 
commit such a terrible act. It is impossible for most of us to 
appreciate the pain of losing a loved one to such a violent, senseless 
act. But we can try to console them and we can work tirelessly to 
prevent other terrorist acts against other innocent men and women, both 
here and abroad.
  So on this solemn anniversary, we resolve once again to fight 
terrorism wherever we find it and to never forget the people who have 
suffered from it. We will never forget Oklahoma City or the people who 
lost their lives on that day.


                      Financial Regulatory Reform

  Mr. President, turning my attention to the financial services bill, 
as we know, it came out of the Banking Committee on a party-line vote, 
without any Republican support. So where are we? The debate over 
financial regulatory reform continues this week, so let me recap where 
we are, the progress we are making, as well as some of the more 
unhelpful things we have seen.
  Over the past year or so, Democrats and Republicans alike worked long 
and hard to construct a bill aimed at preventing the kind of financial 
crisis we saw in the fall of 2008, and, just as crucially, to prevent 
any future bailouts of the biggest Wall Street firms. That was the 
goal.
  Progress was made. But then, in a rush to get the bill to the floor, 
these talks stopped. So last week, I came to the floor to point out the 
flaws that resulted from this partisan approach.
  One of the biggest of these was the creation of a $50 billion bailout 
fund. It seemed to me and many others that the very existence of this 
fund would perpetuate the same kind of risky behavior that led to the 
last crisis.
  On this point, there seemed to be fairly broad consensus, from Senate 
Republicans to Secretary Geithner himself.
  So the reaction I got was somewhat amusing.
  Some of our friends on the other side raised voices of protest 
because I had spoken up about flaws in the bill. Others ginned up the 
press with some inside-Washington line about talking points and 
pollsters. And over at the White House, the President criticized me in 
his weekly radio address even as his deputies worked to strip the very 
provision I had called into question a few days before.
  Well, they cannot have it both ways.

[[Page 5724]]

  So my advice at the beginning of this week is that we focus not on 
personal attacks or questioning each other's motives but on fixing the 
problems in this bill, and that means doing everything we can to make 
sure the final product doesn't allow for future Wall Street bailouts.
  Both parties agree on this point: no bailouts. In my view, that is a 
pretty good start. So let us come together and direct our energies 
toward making sure we achieve that goal and leave aside all the name-
calling and the second-guessing.
  What last week showed me is that we have two options as this debate 
moves forward: either we let the people who know this legislation best 
get back to the negotiating table and work out a solution that is 
acceptable to both parties and to the American people, or, I can come 
down to the floor, identify some of the other flaws in this bill, watch 
as people come down to scream and yell about my suggestions and my 
motives, and then wait for the White House to agree with me at the end 
of the week.
  I am perfectly happy to do the latter if it means we get a better 
bill in the end. But it seems to me that a far more efficient way of 
proceeding is to just skip the character attacks on anyone who dares to 
point out flaws with the bill, be they provisions that expose taxpayers 
to Wall Street bailouts or those that would further worsen the jobs 
situation, and work out these problems now. Forget the theatrics, and 
get to work.
  Again, I am happy to come down and identify additional problems. I 
could mention, for instance, my worry that the current bill could dry 
up credit even more for small businesses and community banks. The 
experts know that this and other problems exist in the bill. If the 
administration wants to continue to pretend that it does not, then you 
will see me down here every day. But my preference would be to let the 
experts work through these problems on a bipartisan basis.
  So let us go back to the negotiating table and work out these 
problems, and then come together and have a bipartisan vote that will 
give the American people confidence that this bil is not just one 
party's way of solving this problem. These problems are not 
insurmountable. This bill is not unfixable. We can reform Wall Street 
without making taxpayers pick up the tab. Let us do that, then give the 
American people a strong bipartisan bill that an issue like this 
deserves.

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