Financial Services Reform

Mr. ELLISON. Mr. Speaker, President Bush's policies of deregulation, poor regulation, and lack of oversight of our financial system came to a head a little more than a year ago, and they brought us the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. As my friends on the other side of the aisle talk about unemployment and the stimulus package, it is their policies that made all of this necessary in the first place.

But the Democratic Congress is roaring back to protect consumers, to make our financial system more safe and sound, and to provide an orderly resolution of financial firms that have failed. Legislation being proposed right now will provide unprecedented protections for American consumers through the Consumer Financial Protection Agency, put procedures in place to make sure taxpayers will never again have to bail out too-big-to-fail institutions, restore accountability and transparency so that problems are recognized and fixed before they threaten the entire economy, outlaw many of the most egregious practices, like subprime lending, and put our economy on a stable footing.

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