Senate Passes Financial Reform Legislation
Several different reactions to passage of finance regulations.
Compiled by staff
Published: Jul 16, 2010
The House-Senate Financial Regulations Compromise Report passed the U.S. Senate Thursday by a vote of 60 to 39. A simple majority was necessary. The President is expected to sign the legislation. Earlier in the day by a vote of 60 to 38 the Senate cleared a key procedural hurdle making the final vote possible.
Once signed by the President the financial reform bill will impose new restrictions on risky financial instruments, create a special agency to look out for consumers and require banks and other financial institutions to hold more capital to protect against future financial upheaval.
The bill's co-author Senator Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., says the bill creates the tools and the architecture to allow good people to do a good job on behalf of the American public.
"It can't give you your job back, restore that foreclosed home or put retirement money back in your account," Dodd said. "But we will never ever again have to go through what this nation has been through."
Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., says the financial reform bill will rein in the reckless Wall Street behavior that nearly destroyed the nation's economy. Lincoln worked on the derivatives title and she says the legislation brings a $600 trillion unregulated derivatives market into the light of day, ending the days of Wall Street's backroom deals and putting money back on Main Street where it belongs.
However Senate Agriculture Ranking Member Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., claims nothing in the 2,300 page bill deals with the primary catalyst of the market instability in the economy: the bailout behemoths Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Chamblss says the bill ignores the devastating impact these two entities continue to have not only on our capital markets but also the nation's deficit. Chambliss contends the rules will make it more expensive for ag banks – who had nothing to do with the financial crisis – to do business. As a result he says farmers and ranchers, electric co-ops and ethanol facilities who seek financing from these institutions will bear the burden.
National Farmers Union President Roger Johnson says farmers need stability in commodity markets in order to function. He says the bill approved by the Senate brings meaningful reform to the economy reversing the trend of reckless deregulation of the financial sector, which has brought great harm to American family farmers and ranchers and the economy as a whole.
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