AFR Statement on Subcommittee on Capital Markets and Government Sponsored Enterprises Hearing

Washington, DC – Americans for Financial Reform (AFR), a coalition of more than 250 national and state organizations working together for strong financial reform, issued the following statement:

Damon Silvers, Policy Director and Special Counsel at the AFL-CIO testified today on behalf of AFR, AFL-CIO and the Consumer Federation of America.
The proposals under consideration during today’s hearing are not about putting Americans back to work. The proposals are an attempt to begin chipping away at the first meaningful step toward re-regulating our financial markets after 30 years of deregulation led to the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

If there was a truth in labeling act for Congress, here is what these proposals would be called:

1. “The Business Risk Mitigation and Price Stabilization Act”, would amend the definition of a “major swap participant” and prevent regulators from designating for special oversight highly leveraged financial institutions that maintain major speculative swaps positions. It should be called the “Help Create Another AIG Act”;

2. “The Burdensome Data Collection Relief Act”, which would repeal the requirement in Dodd-Frank that issuers disclose their ratio of CEO to worker pay, would be called “The CEO Pay Secrecy Act”;

3. “The Small Business Capital Access and Job Preservation Act”, which would amend the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 to provide a registration exemption for private equity fund advisers, would be called “The No Accountability for Leveraged Buyout Funds Act”;

4. “Small Company Capital Formation Act of 2011”, which allow offerings of up to $50 million to rely on the Regulation A exemption from SEC registration, would be called the “Promote Penny Stock Fraud Act”; and

5. “The Asset-Backed Market Stabilization Act”, would exempt rating agencies from the same standards that apply to other experts giving opinions in connection with offerings of asset-backed securities, it should be called the “Legal Immunity for People Who Brought You the Financial Panic.”

###