[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Pages 6457-6458]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      FINANCIAL REGULATORY REFORM

  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I can remember as a boy we moved from 
Searchlight, and my dad got a job in Henderson, where I was going to 
high school, and we rented a home there. We had a TV set, the first TV 
set. I can remember way back then my mother watching a program called 
``As The World Turns.'' It was a soap opera. I had never watched it on 
purpose but passing by, I guess. She watched that anytime she could, 
anytime she had a TV set.
  My wife as a young woman, a young mother, to get away from the chores 
of taking care of those children of ours,

[[Page 6458]]

would watch ``As The World Turns.'' This soap opera went from my 
mother, to my wife. That show is still going on, ``As The World 
Turns.'' This soap opera is never going to end, I guess. I want 
everyone in the Senate to know that the negotiations we hear so much 
about are never going to end.
  We have to get on this bill. My friends on the other side of the 
aisle should understand, we have negotiated in good faith and we have 
tried and we have to get to this bill. Negotiations are similar to ``As 
The World Turns.'' Similar to a soap opera, they are never going to 
end, until we get on this bill.
  I would say to my friends, let's get on this bill because we are 
going to continue having rollcall votes on this matter as long as it 
takes. I am happy when we get on the bill. I have told everybody, on 
numerous occasions, publicly and privately, on 90 percent of issues 
brought to this floor we have had open debate.
  We have had the most open debate in many Congresses. I am happy about 
that. This issue that is now before us is going to be one where we can 
amend, offer amendments and have debate and move forward. My friends on 
both sides of the aisle want to offer amendments. They have told me 
that. That is what we will do, but we cannot do that until we get on 
the bill.
  I say to my friends on the other side of the aisle, again, let's stop 
talking about this negotiation. It is going nowhere. We started off 
months of negotiations with the chairman and ranking member, Senator 
Shelby, until they broke it off, and then a Senator from Tennessee 
thought he would have his try at it. He tried. That failed. We went 
before the committee. There were a lot of amendments filed by the 
Republicans. They did not offer a single amendment before the 
committee. That is why it was reported to the floor.
  We need to move on. Republicans and Democrats have held months of 
bipartisan meetings, negotiations, and consensus. But the time has come 
to move this conversation from the sidelines to the playing field. It 
is time this debate happened on the Senate floor where it belongs.
  They think all the negotiations, I guess, should happen behind closed 
doors. They want all the disagreements to end before the discussion 
begins. I was so disappointed in one of my friends. I heard her on the 
radio this morning saying: Well, this is a complicated bill, and we 
have to get it worked out before we are going to let this bill go to 
the floor. Now that, I say with all due respect, does not make much 
sense.
  They want everything worked out before we get to the floor. Is that 
the new standard, they want all the disagreements to end before the 
discussion begins? I wonder what they think the purpose of debate is or 
why we have an amendment process. Negotiations are not moving forward. 
It is ``As The World Turns.'' This soap opera never ends.
  Well, this is going to end. We have to continue on this legislation. 
The Republican leadership's insistence we work this out in the 
backrooms is a stalling tactic. Every day they stall it a day, they say 
to Wall Street: Keep up the good work.
  I have learned a little bit about this debate as we have moved on. I 
have learned, having been in the past chairman of the Nevada Gaming 
Commission, which is the gambling commission, we tried to make those 
games fair so people who came to gamble--and they gamble with their own 
money--if they lost that money, they lost it fair and square. But one 
thing they lost was their own money.
  The deal on Wall Street is an interesting gamble. They use our money, 
and then they keep all the profits, and if there are losses, they come 
to us for help. It has been more than 2 years since the financial 
collapse and months since these negotiations started. It is time to 
move forward on this legislation.
  What are my friends afraid of? This is the Senate. We are supposed to 
legislate. Negotiate? There comes a time when we have to legislate. 
That time has arrived.

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