Credit Ratings

Floor Speech

Ms. SPEIER. Mr. Speaker, more than one in 10 of fellow Californians is out of work. This is due in part to decisions made 3,000 miles away by analysts at America's credit rating agencies ranking funds at AIG and Lehman Brothers as AA or AAA one day, only to have these companies bankrupt the next.

Last week at the Financial Services Committee hearing, I asked the executives of the rating agencies why they kept Lehman Brothers so highly rated when there were plenty of warning signs they were in trouble. The answer I got was astounding. They kept Lehman highly rated because they assumed the government would bail it out. I then asked how many of these analysts who base these decisions on assumptions rather than evidence lost their jobs. Again, the answer was unfathomable: none, not one.

Mr. Speaker, I did not come down to the floor this morning to seek retribution, but rather some common sense. This situation underscores the urgent need to enact strong financial regulatory reform and specifically make the rating agencies accountable for their decisions.

When the decisions of a few in a Manhattan skyscraper affect the livelihoods of hardworking Americans all across our country, there must be accountability.

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