Executive Session

Floor Speech

EXECUTIVE SESSION

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Mr. SCHUMER. I thought I was next.

Mr. President, it was only a little over a year ago, with the collapse of Lehman Brothers, that we faced a financial crisis the likes of which few have seen in our lifetime. We were truly standing on the edge and staring into the abyss. For all intents and purposes the financial system was on the cusp of a total breakdown. A Great Depression loomed.

Now, a year later, while we cannot diminish the very real and large problems that remain in front of us, we did succeed in preventing the catastrophe that seemed very possible if not probable in the fall of 2000. Nobody was more important in preventing the collapse of the financial system and the rescue of the economy from what looked like imminent freefall than was Chairman Bernanke.

I was there at many of the meetings, and I saw his steady hand and guidance. That is why I am going to vote to reconfirm him as Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board.

The Fed certainly made mistakes in the runup to the financial crisis: failing to use its regulatory authority to rein in a skyrocketing credit boom, failing to adequately fulfill its responsibility to protect consumers from predatory lending practices in mortgages and elsewhere, and allowing too risky activities with too little protection.

While most of these policies began under the previous Chairmen, Chairman Bernanke presided over the Fed and continued them. That is something I am sure he is not proud of, but he has acknowledged that he has many lessons to learn from the crisis and he is working hard to make sure the same mistakes are not repeated in the future.

I also want to say a word about the consequences of failing to reconfirm him. Our economy, while struggling to return to solid ground, remains fragile. Unemployment is way too high. We have yet to turn the corner on sustained job growth. Businesses, small and large, are still having a hard time getting access to credit they need to expand and grow, or even, in many cases, doing business as usual.

Singling out Chairman Bernanke and the Fed for punishment might be temporarily satisfying for some, but it will not help a single business add jobs. It will not prevent a single homeowner from being kicked out of his or her house. Instead, it will accomplish just the opposite. By sending a message that the Federal Reserve and its monetary policy decisions are under the thumb of Congress, businesses will be faced with the prospect that the Fed might not be able to do what is necessary for the economy because of pressure from Congress.

Economists tell us one of the major things holding the economy back is uncertainty about the policies that Washington will pursue. This would exacerbate that concern and create a very bad outcome for the economy and the country. I have said it before, and I will say it again: If you don't like monetary policy when the Fed does it, just wait until the politicians get their hands on it.

I am going to vote to reconfirm Chairman Bernanke as Fed chairman, and I urge my colleagues to do the same.

I yield the floor.

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