May 20,2010

Grassley Cloture Vote on Financial Reform

M E M O R A N D U M

TO:      Reporters and Editors
RE:      Cloture Vote on Financial Bill
DA:      Thursday, May 20, 2010

Senator Chuck Grassley issued the comment below about his vote to continue debate on S.3217, the Financial Stability Bill.

Grassley Comment:

“There are still important amendments that ought to be considered on behalf of consumers and taxpayers, and many of those amendments are unlikely to be considered under the procedure being pushed by the majority leader.  With everything that went wrong before the financial crisis of 2008, Congress ought to be as thorough as possible in its effort to respond.”

Background Information:

Grassley has offered a number of amendments aimed at increasing transparency and accountability in the bureaucracy and industry, including the Federal Reserve, the Securities and Exchange Commission, credit-rating agencies and Congress itself.  He won passage of his amendment to establish for employees of credit-rating agencies the same whistleblower protections he secured for corporate employees after Enron, and the Senate approved an amendment he cosponsored to remove the conflicts of interest that compromise assessments by credit-rating agencies.  Grassley also won passage of his amendment to strengthen the hand of Inspectors General throughout the federal bureaucracy to fight fraud, abuse and mismanagement.  Grassley’s IG amendment was adopted by a vote of 75 to 21, and responded to language in the Dodd bill which would have undermined the independence of Inspectors General at five federal agencies dealing with the financial system.