Wall Street Reform And Consumer Protection Act--Conference Report

Floor Speech

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Mr. DODD. Mr. President, very briefly, because the hour is late and we will have a longer time to engage in a debate about the conference report, I wish to begin this evening, as I will try to repeat during the next 2 days, with my deep appreciation to the majority leader, HARRY REID. While there were a lot of people involved in this process over the last several years who have brought us to this moment for us to consider this very important landmark piece of legislation regarding reform of our financial services, none of this ever happens unless you have a leader who makes it possible to happen.

While that is a simple enough sentence to say, there is so much that goes into that sentence--the organization, bringing people together, seeing to it that the time is available, making sure the procedures that we will work under allow us to have a full-throated debate, as we were able to on this bill.

This bill went through almost a month of consideration on the Senate floor. We considered almost 60 different amendments offered by both parties, many of which were adopted to change the bill, added value to it. It then proceeded to a conference with the other body in which we spent another 2 weeks, well into the all-night session until June 25 in which another 60 or 70 amendments were considered, and then came back to this Chamber where we are now in the position of adopting the conference report. None of that happens without having leadership in a body that makes it possible for those events to unfold.

While there will be a lot of talk over the coming days about how this happened and what is in the bill, it is important that as we begin the conversation over the next several days, before we vote whether to accept this conference report, that I begin by expressing my gratitude to the majority leader and his staff and others who made it possible for us to arrive at this historic moment as to whether we will change the status quo and set up a regulatory structure that makes it possible for us to address future economic crises, as certain as they will occur, with the ability to deal with them early on, to avoid them becoming larger problems as this one did because we failed to have the regulatory process in place, we failed to have the kind of oversight, we failed to have the kind of protections for consumers that this bill drafts and provides for.

I thank the majority leader for his leadership. While he was not directly involved day to day, there wasn't a single occasion when I could not pick up that phone or walk into his office, cite a problem I had on how to get from point A to point B in which he didn't stop everything he was doing to make sure we could work our way through those difficulties. A lot goes on unseen on how we operate in this Chamber. But, again, when this bill is adopted, as I hope it will be, there are many people who deserve gratitude and expressions of thanks. We ought to begin by thanking the majority leader for making it possible. To him and to his staff and others, I say thank you. I look forward over the next 2 days to the debate.

I yield the floor.

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