Tierney applauds Wall Street reform law
Washington, D.C. — Congressman John Tierney (D-MA) released the following statement in support of the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which President Obama signed into law today.
The measure, which Tierney helped pass in the House, will protect consumers and small businesses while holding big banks accountable for their role in the current economic crisis.
“For far too long, many on Wall Street have been allowed to profit unbridled at the expense of average American families, seniors, and small businesses. The Wall Street Reform bill signed into law today will put in place sensible measures to rein in Wall Street, help to prevent the risky practices that led to the current financial meltdown, and ensure that taxpayers are no longer responsible for bailing out big banks,” said Tierney. “Wall Street reform will protect and empower local families to make better decisions about their financial futures while providing the regulatory certainty necessary to help investors and local businesses spur economic growth and create jobs in our communities.”
The Wall Street Reform law includes:
Provisions that will protect consumers:
- Eliminating costly taxpayer bailouts with new procedures to unwind failing companies that pose the greatest risk – paid for by the financial industry and not the taxpayers.
- Creating a new independent Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to protect families and small businesses from deceptive practices by ensuring that bank loans, mortgages, and credit cards are fair, affordable, understandable, and transparent.
Provisions which will rein in Wall Street:
- Ending the casino culture on Wall Street by enacting tough new rules on the riskiest financial practices, including a “Volcker rule” that generally restricts investment banks from using federally-insured taxpayer funds to make their own risky bets.
- Constraining egregious executive compensation and retirement plans by allowing a ‘say on pay’ for shareholders, requiring independent directors on compensation committees, and limiting bank executive risky pay practices.
Tierney has been a vocal critic of the lack of regulatory reform that led to our current economic crisis and has consistently supported efforts to clean up risky Wall Street practices. In 1999 he was one of only 57 House Members who opposed the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, legislation which protected consumer and small business deposits by creating a firewall between investment banking and commercial banking.
- -
This article was published by The Burlington Union. You can find the original article here.
