Financial Regulatory Reform

Floor Speech

Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I have been fighting hard for a Wall Street reform bill that protects my State's families, holds Wall Street accountable, and includes a guarantee that American taxpayers will never again have to pay to bail out Wall Street or to clean up after big banks' messes. I am proud to say that, finally, after months of hard work, we are so close now to passing legislation that does exactly that.

This should not be a partisan issue. It should not be about right versus left or Republican versus Democrat. It should be about doing what is right for our families and small business owners in my State of Washington and across the country. It should be about who it is we choose to stand up for and who we think needs our support right now.

Some people have spent the last few months standing up for Wall Street and big banks, trying to water down this reform, and fighting against any changes that would prevent the big banks from going back to their ``bonus as usual'' mentality.

I have been proud to stand with so many others to fight against the Wall Street lobbyists and special interest groups and stand up for the families I represent in Washington--families who want us to pass strong reform that cannot be ignored or sidestepped in the future, who want us to end bailouts and make sure Wall Street is held accountable for cleaning up their own messes, and who want us to put into place strong consumer protections to make sure big banks can never again take advantage of our families, our students, or our seniors.

For most Americans, this debate is not complex; it is pretty simple. It is not about derivatives or credit default swaps; it is about fundamental fairness. It is about making sure that we have good commonsense rules that work for our families and our small business owners. It is about the person who walks into a bank to sign up for a mortgage, or applies for a credit card, or starts planning their retirement. We want to make sure the rules are now on their side and not with the big banks on Wall Street.

For far too long the financial rules of the road have not favored the American people. Instead, they have favored big banks, credit card companies, and Wall Street. For too long, those people have abused the rules.

As we now approach this vote, I think it is important for all of us to be clear about who it is we are fighting for. I am fighting for people such as Devin Glaser, a school aide in Seattle, who told me that he had worked and saved his money and bought a condo before the recession began. He told me he put 20 percent down on a traditional mortgage and was making his payments. However, like a lot of people who found themselves underemployed as a result of this recession, Devin has been unable to find work for more than 25 hours a week. He told me he is now unable to pay his mortgage. He will be foreclosed on any day now.

I am also fighting for people such as Rob Hays, a Washington State student whose parents have put their retirement on hold and gone back to work in order to send him to school. A few short years ago, Rob's parents were in the process of selling their home and preparing to retire. But then the foreclosure crisis took hold and they could no longer find a buyer. As a result, they were forced to pay two mortgages with the money they had saved for Rob's school, and retirement was put on hold.

I am fighting for people such as Jude LaRene, a small business owner in Washington State, who told me that when the financial crisis hit, his line of credit was pulled. That forced him to lay off employees, go deep into debt on his personal credit card, and cut back on inventory--despite the fact that his toy stores were more popular than ever.

I am fighting for people such as Devon and Rob and Jude because they are the ones being forced to pay the price now for Wall Street's greed and irresponsibility.

Whether it was gambling with borrowed money from our pension funds, making bets they could not cover, or peddling mortgages to people they knew could never pay, Wall Street made reckless choices that have devastated a lot of working families.

In my home State of Washington, Wall Street's mistakes cost us over 150,000 jobs. They cost average families thousands of dollars in lost income.

They cost small businesses the access to credit they need to expand and hire and, in many cases, caused them to close.

They cost workers their retirement accounts they were counting on to carry them through their golden years and students the college savings that would help launch their college careers.

They cost homeowners the value of their most important financial asset as neighborhoods have been decimated by foreclosures.

They cost our schoolteachers and our police officers and all of our communities. And they cost our workers, such as Devon, our students, such as Rob, and our small business owners, such as Jude.

We owe it to people like them all across the country to reform this system that puts Wall Street before Main Street. We owe it to them to put their families back in control of their own finances. We owe it to them to make sure the rules that protect families sitting around the dinner table at night, balancing their checkbooks and finding ways to save for the future, not those sitting around the board room table finding ways to increase profits at the expense of hard-working Americans. To do that, we have to pass this strong Wall Street reform legislation.

It is important for families to understand what this bill does and what exactly opponents of this legislation are fighting against.

This bill contains explicit language guaranteeing that taxpayers will never again be responsible for bailing out Wall Street. It creates a brandnew Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that will protect our consumers from big bank ripoffs, end unfair fees, curb out-of-control credit card and mortgage rates, and be a new cop on the beat to safeguard consumers and protect their families.

It puts in place new restrictions for small businesses from unfair transaction fees that are imposed by credit card companies. It enforces limitations on excessive compensation for Wall Street executives. And it offers new tools to promote financial literacy and make sure our families have the knowledge to protect themselves and take personal responsibility for their finances.

I have heard so many stories from people across Washington State who have scrimped and saved and made the best with what they had but were devastated, through no fault of their own--people who played by the rules but who are now paying the price for those on Wall Street who did not. These are the people for whom we have to stand up, the people whose Main Street values I and so many others fight for every day.

With all of the new protections and reforms this bill contains for families and small businesses, one has to ask: Who are the opponents fighting for and who are they standing up to protect?

I grew up working at my dad's five-and-dime store on Main Street in Bothell, WA--actually on Main Street. Like a lot of people in the country, Main Street is where I got my values. I was taught by my dad that the product of your work was not just about the dollars in the till at the end of the day. I learned that a good transaction was one that was good for your business and good for your customer. I learned that strong customer service and lasting relationships often made your business much stronger; that personal responsibility meant owning up to your mistakes and making them right. I learned that one business relied on all the others on the same street.

I was taught that customers were not prey and businesses were not predators, and that an honest business was a successful one.

It is time for us to bring those Main Street values back to our financial system, to bring back an approach that puts Main Street and families over Wall Street and profits; that protects consumers, holds big banks accountable for their actions, and makes sure people such as Devon and Rob and Jude are never again forced to bear the burden for big banks' mistakes.

I urge my colleagues today to stand with us against the status quo and for this strong Wall Street reform bill that families and small businesses in Washington State and across the country desperately need.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.

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