Senator Grassley issued the following statement about his vote tonight for S.3217, the Financial Regulation bill.
Grassley Statement:
“There’s no question this bill has flaws, but a message needs to be sent to Wall Street that business-as-usual is over. After what happened leading up to the 2008 financial crisis, something’s got to change. Taxpayers need protection. Big banks and financial institutions took advantage at the expense of average Americans, and the system let them get away with it. This bill takes a step in the direction of trying to fix things. It starts to open up the Fed. It puts the massive derivatives market in the light of day. Other reform is needed, too, starting with Fannie and Freddie. It’s a matter of transparency and accountability.”
Background Information:
Grassley offered a number of amendments to the bill during Senate debate to increase transparency and accountability in the bureaucracy and industry, including the Federal Reserve, the Securities and Exchange Commission, credit-rating agencies and Congress itself. He won passage of his amendment to establish for employees of credit-rating agencies the same whistleblower protections he secured for corporate employees after Enron, and the Senate approved an amendment he cosponsored to remove the conflicts of interest that compromise assessments by credit-rating agencies. Grassley also won passage of his amendment to strengthen the hand of Inspectors General throughout the federal bureaucracy to fight fraud, abuse and mismanagement. Grassley’s IG amendment was adopted by a vote of 75 to 21, and responded to language in the original bill which would have undermined the independence of Inspectors General at five federal agencies dealing with the financial system.