NTU urges all Senators to vote "NO" on cloture on the motion to proceed to S. 3217, Senator Dodd's so-called "Restoring American Financial Stability Act."
This legislation represents a flawed and incomplete approach to the necessity of reforming America's financial system. It is flawed because it raises $50 billion in taxes on banks (and thus prices on consumers) for a permanent bailout fund. Equally troubling, it confers more power upon a Federal Reserve which repeatedly either failed to detect or made worse problems in the financial sector. It is incomplete because it says not a word about reforming mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, entities which account for the vast majority of current losses associated with the Troubled Asset Relief Program. Additionally, Fannie and Freddie arguably pose even larger systemic risks today than during the mortgage meltdown. Rather than debate and amend a fundamentally defective bill, Congress should return to the drawing board to draft language that would protect taxpayers and reform Fannie and Freddie once and for all.
For these reasons, all Senators should vote "NO" on cloture on the motion to proceed to S. 3217, the "Restoring American Financial Stability Act." Any such roll call votes will be significantly weighted in our annual Rating of Congress.
If you have any questions, please contact
NTU Director of Government Affairs Andrew Moylan at (703) 683-5700