The Defeat of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008

Press Release

THE DEFEAT OF THE EMERGENCY ECONOMIC STABILIZATION ACT OF 2008 -- (House of Representatives - September 29, 2008)

Ms. KAPTUR. Madam Speaker, this was an amazing day in the Congress of the United States. The American people were actually heard, and fear was put on the shelf as we stopped hasty action that Wall Street powerhouses had attempted to ram through this Congress. It was a sobering day. It was an exhausting day. Now we have to get to work to create a new moment: to draft legislation on a bipartisan basis that is responsible, that is rigorous and that meets the real needs.

This includes securities and exchange reform legislation to expand credit flows. The SEC and bank regulators must act immediately to suspend the fair value accounting rules; they must clamp down on abuses by short sellers, and they must withdraw the Basel II capital rules. These will go a long way to expanding credit flows at the local level.

We have to stabilize our housing markets on Main Street, and we have to reform the regulatory process and investigate the wrongdoers who brought America and the American people to this juncture.

We have to fund the FBI to go after those who have exhibited malfeasance, accounting fraud, who have used abusive practices, and who have made billions doing it.

I want to thank the American people and this Congress for doing what was right, not what was hasty.

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