FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DATE: April 19, 2010

Campaign Urges Sen. Corker:  Stand Up for Your Work

As Republican Leaders Attack Corker’s Wall Street Accountability Bill, Tennesseans Will Send Message to Stay Strong

Washington DC – On the eve of the Senate battle over holding Wall Street banks accountable, progressive advocates have launched a targeted campaign urging Sen. Bob Corker to stand his ground and support the anti-bailout legislation he actually wrote. The centerpiece of the campaign will be thousands of telephone calls in Tennessee describing Sen. Corker’s bipartisan work and his own party’s efforts to undercut.

This is the same legislation that Sen. Mitch McConnell has repeatedly mischaracterized as he courts Wall Street executives for cash in return for preserving the status quo and allowing them to remain unaccountable. His statements on the Wall Street accountability legislation headed for the Senate floor this month echo almost exactly the suggestions from bank pollster Frank Luntz, who advised his clients on how to kill reform.

Sen. Corker, a Republican, worked closely with Democratic Senator Mark Warner of Virginia to create an orderly process, funded entirely by Wall Street, for shutting down failing financial institutions like AIG to ensure that taxpayers will never again be asked to bail them out. The process is similar to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corps role in shuttering failing banks.

Heather Booth, Director, Americans for Financial Reform: “Sen. Corker actually did the bipartisan work that many Republicans have been complaining wasn’t happening all year. Now his own party is trying to undercut his efforts to protect Americans from future bailouts solely for their own partisan political purposes. In fact, the legislation Sen. Corker wrote is tough, orderly process to ensure that taxpayers never again have to bail out failing financial institutions. It’s a solution that’s paid for solely by the financial institutions themselves. This is exactly the kind of obstructionism that makes the American people mistrust their elected Representatives. In Sen. McConnell’s case, it seems this mistrust is well-placed.”