Boxer Statement on Signing of Wall Street Reform Legislation

Statement

U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) today released the following statement after attending President Obama's signing ceremony for Wall Street reform legislation, which included her amendment to end taxpayer bailouts of Wall Street by ensuring that financial firms--not taxpayers--will pay all the costs of liquidating a failing Wall Street firm:

"The reckless gambling on Wall Street cost us millions of jobs and led to the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. I am proud that the landmark legislation President Obama signed today included my amendment to ensure that taxpayers will never again be forced to bail out Wall Street. From this day forward, financial firms will responsible for paying for their own costly mistakes."

Senator Boxer helped bring together Senators from both sides of the aisle by offering the first amendment to the legislation--to prohibit any taxpayer funds from bailing out Wall Street firms. It passed on a 96-1 vote.

Senator Boxer also filed an amendment banning so-called "steering payments"--bonuses given by banks to mortgage brokers to place homeowners in riskier and more costly subprime loans that many families could not afford. She worked closely with the Banking Committee on the final language in the bill, which will ban steering payments and require that lenders confirm a borrower's ability to repay the loan.

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