Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010--Motion to Proceed

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I rise to express my disappointment that we were unable to reach an agreement today to begin debate on reforming Wall Street. As my colleague from New Jersey, Senator Menendez, so eloquently put it, this is not the time to say no. This is the time to move forward and get something done.

Someone referred to the Senate the other day as dysfunction junction. It was a nice little rhyme, and I can tell you it is incidents such as the one we saw tonight, where our friends on the other side of the aisle will not even allow debate to start, that leads to that sad name. We are ready to move away from the station. There are those of us who have been out talking to our constituents, and we know the train has to leave the junction. The train has to move ahead, and we need to move ahead with this Wall Street reform.

Last week, I came to the floor with some of my colleagues to talk about another delay--a delay of nominations. These are nominees who have been voted out of committee, sometimes with unanimous support, but are now waiting months for a full vote on the Senate floor. During this same timeframe in the Bush administration, five nominees were outstanding. Yet the same time during the Obama administration over 100 nominees are outstanding. So if there is anyone who doesn't believe us about this delay and what is going on, look at those numbers and look at what is happening with this reform.

It is ironic we are talking about putting rules in place to prevent Wall Street from gaming the system, when we have plenty of Senators who are gaming the system right here. But there is a problem with that. The American people aren't a game of chance. They don't want the dice rolled over their futures. They don't want the dice rolled over their family homes. They want us to get this done.

Look at what has happened with this filibuster, again stopping us from going to debate. In the entire 19th century, including the struggle and the debate about slavery, fewer than two dozen filibusters were mounted. Between 1933 and the coming of the war, it was attempted only twice. Under Eisenhower and JFK, the pattern continued. In 8 years of the Eisenhower administration, only two filibusters were mounted. Under Kennedy, there were four. But now we see this tactic being employed over and over. This year alone, since January, we have had over 50 filibusters.

I can tell you I believe, in the end, we are going to get this done. I believe, in the end, we will have Republican votes for this bill because I know there are some colleagues on that side of the aisle who want to get this bill done and who have been working to get it done. But the reasons I heard raised today for holding up debate do not ring true.

First off, advancing the idea that this bill isn't already a bipartisan product would be a slight to all those who have worked on it. I see Senator Dodd over here, who worked for months and months and months to craft a bipartisan bill. The bill we have before us is the product of countless hours of negotiation between Members on both sides of the aisle and incorporates many of the agreements that were reached.

If anyone thinks there is a more important issue to have before the Senate, that there is some reason we shouldn't be debating this, I don't think they have been talking to the people back home. The people understand that while Wall Street maybe got a cold and has bounced back and is doing well, Main Street has pneumonia. Small businesses today are still starved for credit. The small banks, which Senator Menendez pointed out had nothing to do with starting this crisis, are also suffering. That is what is happening in this country today.

Nearly 3 years after our financial system began to melt down, America continues to suffer the effects of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Millions of Americans have lost their jobs, homes, retirements, and savings. Although some key indicators are beginning to move in the right direction, I can tell you, having been home this last weekend, many families are still struggling, and the economic damage is slow to reverse itself on Main Street.

Meanwhile, on Wall Street, the largest firms handed out record bonuses totaling nearly $146 billion, an 18-percent increase from 2008. What do we have at home? U.S. per capita income declined 2.6 percent. Boiled down to its essentials, the financial crisis was about risk. Everyone thought they could manage but, instead, things got wildly out of control. Three years later--and I think it is hard for people to believe this--we can't seem to even get past a debate tonight about actually getting the bill on the floor. Three years later Wall Street is still operating by the same old rules. That is why it is so important we begin this debate.

There may be some of my colleagues who think all Wall Street needs is fixing a few potholes. Well, that has been tried before and it certainly didn't work. I think what we need are some stop signs at some intersections and some very good traffic cops. There is a lot more to the modern financial system, as we all learned, than meets the eye. We need transparency and accountability. That is in this bill. We need an early warning system for too big to fail. That is in the bill.

We need derivatives reform, and I am not talking about the good work businesses do to weather an economic storm when they hedge their bets within their businesses. I am talking about the wildly out-of-control, over-the-counter derivative trails when financial institutions were trading things they didn't even understand and creating the big mess we are in.

Reform legislation must include, and this legislation does include, provisions to look out for the best interests of consumers by educating them about their financial choices, ensuring that they have access to less risky products and protecting them from abusive sales practices, including from nonbank lenders. When we look back at what happened the last few years, it is like Wall Street was driving down the street in their Ferrari and the government was following behind in a Model T Ford. That has to stop.

When we look at the history of this country, when we have been confronted by major challenges, we always rose to those challenges. When Hitler was running across Europe and Pearl Harbor happened, our country didn't just say no. We rose to the challenge, and the greatest generation won that war. When the Russians were going to put a man on the Moon, we didn't just say: Oh, go ahead. We are not going to get involved.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. KLOBUCHAR. As I was saying, Mr. President, this country has done well not by saying no but by saying yes and by moving ahead and getting things done. We can't let this continue. We have to put these rules in place.

Some of our colleagues on the other side of the aisle are, in good faith, negotiating; others are not. The American people will not allow this gamesmanship to continue. The game is over. Let's debate. Let's get some amendments. There are changes we can make to the bill, changes I support. But the only way we are going to get this done is by getting this bill on the floor and allowing for debate. The American people deserve nothing less.

I yield the floor.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source