Wall Street Reform And Consumer Protection Act Of 2009

Floor Speech

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Mr. WILSON of Ohio. Madam Chair, I come to the floor tonight to support H.R. 4173, the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009.

I have often said it's hard to play a fair game without a referee, and I believe that this bill will help us put the appropriate referees in place in our financial markets. It's a big step forward for more oversight, transparency, and consumer protection.

Before coming to Congress, I served for many years on a small bank board back home in Ohio. I know that small banks like the one in our community were not the problem that we're having today and they were not a part of the problem that led our financial markets to the edge of collapse this last fall.

I am proud that this legislation acknowledges that by not putting unfair burdens on banking institutions that have shown themselves to be good corporate citizens.

While the bill is not perfect, I support commonsense regulation of our financial markets. We must put an end to the ``too big to fail'' phenomenon. We must finally give consumers the long-overdue protection that will be provided by consumer protection. And we have to continue making significant improvements on mortgage lending standards so that we never again suffer from predatory lending and practices that we have in the past.

I urge my colleagues to support this important legislation.

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