Motion to Instruct Conferees on H.R. 4173, Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. MOORE of Kansas. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the Republican motion to instruct but in support of the work the House and Senate Conference Committee will begin in crafting a final bill on Wall Street reform.
For most of last year, my colleagues on the House Financial Services Committee, under the outstanding leadership of Chairman Frank, along with other committees, worked hard to produce the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. The work was bipartisan; over 50 Republican amendments were accepted along with over 20 bipartisan amendments. This package contains ideas put forward by Democrats and Republicans, as it should, creating a better and more thoughtful bill.
While the bill is large and complex, it does some very important things: it ends "too big to fail.'' It ends the need for bailouts and fully protects taxpayers, and it has tough new consumer investor protections that will better protect families' retirement funds, college savings, and small business owners' financial futures from unnecessary risks by Wall Street vendors and speculators. And something we were careful to do in the House bill was to make sure this new financial oversight system would focus on the true problems that created the financial crisis and not responsible actors like most community banks and credit unions.
While the bill provides needed new oversight to the $600 trillion derivatives market, it is well balanced, allowing farmers and small businesses in Kansas to conduct good risk management and hedge their business risks in a responsible manner.
I commend the Senate for also passing a tough financial overhaul bill last month.
The conference committee should take the best ideas from both bills and combine them into one final bill that our colleagues can support and that will finally restore our constituents' trust in our financial system. I urge my colleagues to oppose this motion to instruct that serves as a distraction to the need for a well-balanced, strong financial reform package.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source