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Washington,
May 20 – Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Blanche
Lincoln (D-AR) issued the following statement Thursday after the Senate passed the
“Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010” on a bipartisan
59-39 vote. The
legislation includes Lincoln’s
strong reforms for the derivatives market, overcoming repeated attempts by her
committee’s Ranking Member Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) and others to water down
those provisions.
“This historic legislation is about more than just changing
the way Wall Street does business. It’s about helping families save for
college, protecting retirees, ensuring small businesses can get loans and
creating new jobs on Main Street.”
“As Chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, I was
proud to craft the bill’s strong derivatives title. My legislation brings a
$600 trillion market into the light of day and ends the days of Wall Street’s
backroom deals. These strong reforms will rein in the greedy behavior that
nearly destroyed our economy, hurting Arkansas
small businesses and costing millions of Americans their jobs.”
Lincoln promised to “continue to stand up to Wall Street lobbyists
and special interest groups to advocate for these reforms as we work to get
this bill signed into law.”
Critics of Lincoln’s
derivatives provisions charged they would drive up costs to end users and could
drive lucrative derivatives business overseas. Lincoln, CFTC Chair Gary Gensler
and others responded that the greater transparency provided under new trading
rules will bring down end users costs and result in a more user-friendly market
now that real-time trading information will be available to all users rather than
known only to Wall Street financial firms.
In Thursday's 59-39 vote for the bill, four Republicans crossed the aisle to vote with Democrats: Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Susan Collins (R-ME) and Scott Brown (R-MA). Two Democrats missed the vote since their votes were needed for passage: Sens. Arlen Specter (D-PA) and Robert Byrd (D-WV). The two Democrats who voted against passage, Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Russ Feingold (D-WI), were registering their disappointment with a bill they felt wasn't tough enough on Wall Street.
With Senate passage of its Wall Street bill Thursday, the
next step is for the Senate and House to hammer out differences between the
Senate bill and the version passed by the House last December. Democrats hope
that step will be relatively straightforward and result in a final bill which
can be signed by President Obama within the next month or so.
President Obama himself welcomed the long-sought Senate
victory for legislation which he had considered one of his primary objectives.
He commented Thursday that “Over the last year, the financial industry has
repeatedly tried to end this reform with hordes of lobbyists. Today, I think it
is fair to say that those efforts have failed.” He predicted that “Wall Street
reform will bring greater security to folks on Main Street. This is not a zero-sum game
where Wall Street loses and Main
Street wins.” He said “Every American has an
interest in a healthy financial sector.”
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