Last Call on Financial Reform!

Submitted by Mary Bottari on

Last call on financial reformToday, U.S. Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-Arkansas) was dragged into a meeting with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada), Senate Banking Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank (D-Massachusetts). It was a pile-on to ask her to agree to weaken her strong derivatives reforms to accommodate Wall Street. Lincoln made it clear she was not pleased with the pressure. "There are some that are not as interested in being as aggressive in making sure that the possibilities of this financial crisis don’t happen again,” the Arkansas Democrat told Roll Call after the meeting. The issue of derivatives will be taken up tomorrow in the House-Senate Conference Committee which is pounding out the difference between the two bills. Will they adopt the Senate version (which covers 90% of derivatives, with a narrow exemption for legitimate end-users like municipal gas companies) or the House version (which is riddled with loopholes and covers only 60% of derivatives trading)?

If you have time tomorrow morning for one last call, consider calling one of the Big Four in House and Senate leadership. Tell them nothing less that the Lincoln derivatives language (Sec. 716) will do! See the phone numbers below and if you would like to learn more please visit BanksterUSA today!

  1. Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, (202) 225-0100
  2. Senator Majority Leader, Harry Reid (202) 224-3542
  3. Rep. Barney Frank, (202) 225-5931
  4. Senator Chris Dodd (202) 224-2823

Also, tell Senator Lincoln to hang tough: (202) 224-4843

Tell Senator Collins to stand by Lincoln: (202) 224-2523

Tell Senator Snowe to stand by Lincoln: (202) 224-5344

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Mary Bottari
Mary Bottari

Mary Bottari is a reporter for the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD). She helped launch CMD's award-winning ALEC Exposed investigation and is a two-time recipient of the Sidney Prize for public interest journalism from the Sidney Hillman Foundation.

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Comments

Portland Cars replied on

It's amazing that after everything that has gone down over the past couple years that legislators still aren't willing to stand up to financial companies. It really doesn't surprise me that Republicans won't stand up to them, but the infighting among Democrats kind of blows my mind. What happend to doing what is best for the people and standing up to corporate interests? I wish that Dodd, Pelosi, and Barney Frank would actually show some leadership and not just bow to pressure from their corporate campaign contributors. Oh well, I guess there really isn't that much difference between political parties when they all get their money from the same place! Hopefully we'll see some reform with teeth in it, but somehow I doubt it!

Anonymous replied on

It seems that people forget who got us into the economic mess in the first place - the banks and mortgage companies. It still appalls me that they are still trying to point fingers to the consumers saying it is their fault that they agreed to these ridiculous loans that they pushed. The housing and construction industry makes up about 30% of our economy. I really don't understand why the banks refuse to make new construction loans. I know the pendulum has swung in the opposite direction, but in order for our economy to really recover, they need to make those loans.

marveh o. replied on

For common good? In a rare case of voluntary customer protection in the financial industry, Citi declared that it will change the way it clears checks in order to minimize overdraft protection charges. Financial reform restricts banks from providing over-limit protection for debit cards unless customers opt in, but the rules do not apply to checking accounts. Citi is checking itself from charging repeat over-limit fees simply by letting smaller checks clear before a larger one sends the account into negative territory. I read this here: <a title="Check clearing change at Citi to limit overdraft charges" href="http://personalmoneystore.com/moneyblog/2011/04/04/citi-clearing-smallest-checks-first/">Citi to give customers a break by clearing smallest checks first</a>

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