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

Floor Speech

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Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, yesterday afternoon, we attempted to bring a bill to the floor that finally holds Wall Street accountable. It is a bill that includes the strongest protection for consumers that has ever been enacted. It is an end to taxpayer bailouts, and it gives tools to individuals, the resources they need to make smart financial decisions. It is a bill that ends Wall Street's ``anything goes'' rules that have meant everybody else pays.

Unfortunately, the ``no'' vote from the other side yesterday told us they
don't want strong new protections that can't be ignored. It appears they don't want to hold Wall Street accountable for years of irresponsibility and taxpayer-funded bailouts. Instead of fundamentally changing the financial rules of the road, the other side wants to build a speed bump and pass a bill that neither reforms Wall Street nor protects Main Street.

I fear that the obstruction and unwillingness to allow us to bring a bill to the floor is simply their push to get a watered-down bill that big banks can simply step aside from and ignore. It has been rubberstamped by Wall Street lobbyists and special interests. This is just an effort to figure out how they can preserve the status quo and talk their way out of change.

I fear the delay is about allowing special interests in Washington and bankers on Wall Street and big money donors to write a compromise bill. I worry that just about everybody has been invited to the table to write that bill--except the American people. That is because the vast majority of Americans want to see the strong Wall Street reforms we have put forward pass.

In fact, just yesterday, the Washington Post released a poll that shows 63 percent of Americans want to see stronger regulations of Wall Street enacted. But do you know what. There is still a widely held view on Wall Street--as yesterday's vote shows--with many in this Chamber that the voices of the people can be drowned out by big money and twisting words about the truth about what is in this bill. Wall Street thinks they can get away with highway robbery because, unfortunately, they have. They think they can pull a fast one on Main Street. I am here to tell you they cannot. They are flatout wrong. I know because I got my values from Main Street. I grew up in Bothell, a small town of 1,000 people. The values we learned on Main Street are good ones that are also good for your business and for your customers.

We learned that an honest business is a successful one. We learned that our customers are not prey and businesses not predators. We learned that personal responsibility means owning up to mistakes and making them right.

We believe these values are strong throughout our country today. Those values exist in such small towns as the one I grew up in and big cities in every State. Everyone who voted against moving forward with this bill yesterday is going to hear from people who hold those values today. I am sure they will tell you in no uncertain terms that it is time to pass a bill with strong reforms for a system that is out of control. It is time to protect our consumers, time to end bailouts, and time to restore personal responsibility and bring back accountability.

I am very hopeful in the coming few days all of those who voted no will move forward and listen to the hard-working men and women in this country so we can put forward a strong reform bill on Wall Street and protect the American people and the millions of people who have lost their jobs and their security and homes in the last few years from ever having this happen again.

I yield the floor.

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