Regulatory Reform

Floor Speech

Mr. QUIGLEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today because Wall Street reform needs to happen today. Lehman Brothers and AIG collapsed over a year-and-a-half ago, but our regulators still lack the basic power to enforce consumer financial protections and prevent future taxpayer bailouts of large financial firms.

Wall Street reform will safeguard against the deceptive financial products that destabilized the entire economy and caused the crisis. Wall Street reform will establish an orderly process to shut down large failing financial firms like AIG or Lehman Brothers at no cost to taxpayers. Wall Street reform will protect investors from fraudulent investments like Madoff's $65 billion Ponzi scheme. Wall Street reform will ensure that consumers aren't steered to bad, unaffordable mortgages when they qualify for good ones.

We need Wall Street reform now to ensure we never repeat the events of the financial crisis.

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