Historic Wall Street Reform Now Law

Press Release

Since Last Year, Rep. Gary Peters a Leader in Fight for Reform to Protect Economy, End Taxpayer Bailouts Once and for All

The largest overhaul of the nation's financial rules since the Great Depression became law today as President Barack Obama signed Wall Street reform legislation Congress began working on last year. The reform plan will crack down on Wall Street greed and the reckless investment practices that led to a global financial crisis, caused a $17 trillion loss in retirement savings and net worth and caused the economic downturn from which the nation has yet to fully recover. This reform will protect the economy from future meltdowns, create strong new consumer protection rules and ensure an end to taxpayer bailouts of financial institutions. Representative Gary Peters has been a leader in the fight for Wall Street reform from the beginning.

"This is an historic day," Rep. Peters said. "Wall Street greed cost people their jobs, hurt small businesses and decimated retirement accounts and home values. Then taxpayers got stuck with the bill to clean up the mess. Now, protections will be in place to keep casino-style investing from impacting the economy, protect consumers and ensuring an end to taxpayer bailouts once and for all."

Peters serves on the Financial Services Committee and helped shape the original reform bill the House passed last year. He was the only Member of Congress from Michigan selected to serve on the House-Senate conference committee to reconcile the different reform bills passed in each chamber. It is rare for a Member in his first term to be selected to a conference committee, especially on such an historic issue. Peters was selected because of his 22 years of experience as a family investment advisor, his expertise on financial issues and his leadership in crafting the House's original reform bill.

Peters successfully fought for many key provisions included in the final Wall Street reform legislation. Most provisions of the Peters-authored Shareholder Empowerment Act (H.R. 2861) were included in the final legislation. These measures will give investors, a company's true owners, greater ability to ensure that executives act in shareholders' long-term interest rather than make irresponsible bets for their own short-term gain, the sort of reckless investing that led to the financial crisis. Peters' measures will also give shareholders the ability to keep executive pay and bonuses in check by giving shareholders greater power to approve executive compensation.

Peters also successfully added an amendment to help ensure the bill does not overreach and hurt non-Wall Street businesses, ensuring that manufacturers can continue to use derivatives for legitimate business purposes. New regulations would have cost Ford and Ford Credit $2.5 billion over the next five years without Peters' amendment.

Last year Peters authored the amendment that passed as part of the original House bill that would force giant Wall Street banks to pay back every penny of the bailout initiated in 2008, shortly before he became Oakland County's newest representative. Peters fought vehemently to have this provision included in the final bill but Senate negotiators voted to reject the provision. Peters will continue to pursue other means for requiring Wall Street institutions to pay back taxpayers for any shortfall from the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

"I will not stop fighting until Wall Street institutions pay back every penny of the taxpayer bailout," Peters said. "It is only fair that the people who created the mess are held accountable and give taxpayers their money back. Common sense does not always prevail in Washington, but we can't and won't give up."

The final Wall Street reform legislation approved today would:

* Create tough protections for the economy against the reckless investments on Wall Street and rein in the casino-style investments that led to 2008 financial meltdown, including new rules for derivatives and mortgage-backed securities;

* Stop all future taxpayer bailouts by responsibly shutting down--rather than bailing out--giant financial institutions in a structured way so they do not impact the broader economy, and force the financial sector to pay for this dissolution of troubled firms;

* Empower shareholders, a company's true owners, to have more say in how their company is run (including having input on pay and bonuses, more power in corporate board elections and the ability to help rein in reckless investing);

* Develop tough new protections for consumers using financial products such as a car loan, student loan or mortgage, including cracking down on the predatory mortgage lending that helped create the housing bubble. This section also cracks down on individuals who attempt to fraudulently obtain mortgages they can't afford.

The bill has been called the "strongest set of Wall Street reforms in three generations" by Elizabeth Warren, Chair of the nonpartisan Congressional Oversight Panel, and has been endorsed by the AARP, Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union, Council of Institutional Investors, National Fair Housing Alliance, National Restaurant Association, Public Citizen, SEIU, and US PIRG, among other organizations. The bill was publicly debated for more than 50 hours, and includes over 70 Republican and bipartisan amendments.

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