December 11, 2009 2:40 PM (Washington, DC) – Congressman Grayson voted today for H.R. 4173, the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. With this bill, the House of Representatives took a major step to address the problems that caused the so-called “Great Recession.”
Congressman Grayson said, “
As the saying goes, ‘Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.’ We are emerging from a severe recession that was on the verge of a depression. This bill aims to prevent that, and that’s why we needed to pass it.”
The bill includes the Paul-Grayson amendment, which calls for the first independent audit of the Federal Reserve in the 96-year history of the central bank. Congressman Grayson teamed with Rep. Ron Paul to push for the “Audit The Fed” legislation. Congressman Grayson discovered that the Federal Reserve has conducted secret bailouts that range in the hundreds of billions of dollars since 2008. The bill grants authority to the non-partisan General Accountability Office to conduct the audit. “
Exposing how the Federal Reserve operates is a crucial component to any meaningful reform. We need to find out what they’ve done and then we can figure out how to respond,” Congressman Grayson said.
Among the other highlights of the bill are:
- Consumer Protection - Creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency to protect Americans from unfair financial products and services
- Ending Taxpayer-funded Bailouts and Preventing the Rise of Institutions that are “Too Big to Fail”
- Executive Compensation Regulation - Gives shareholders a “say on pay” advisory vote on executive compensation and golden parachutes
- Investor Protections - Strengthens the SEC’s powers so that it can better protect investors and regulate the nation’s securities markets
- Regulation of Derivatives
- Creation of Office of Insurance - Creates a Federal Insurance Office that will monitor all aspects of the insurance industry, including identifying issues or gaps in the regulation of insurers that could contribute to a systemic crisis and undermine the entire financial system.
“
Regarding the financial collapse, all the other bills treated the symptoms. This is the first bill that treats the disease,” Congressman Grayson added.
WASHINGTON, Dec 11 (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Reserve on Friday lost the opening round in a battle to defeat a congressional plan to subject its interest rate decisions to audits, and will now look for a comeback victory when the Senate starts to move on regulatory reforms.
The House of Representatives delivered the loss with a 223-202 vote in favor of a revamp of financial regulation that, among other things, would pare Fed supervision over financial firms and its capacity to provide emergency help to banks, while allowing audits of monetary policy by a watchdog agency.
Interestingly, Paul's GOP leanings surfaced. He voted
against the overall bill.
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