Bay Staters Send Message to Senators: We Want Wall Street Reform

To show the continued momentum on Main Street for financial reform, advocates from the Massachusetts delegation of Americans for Financial Reform delivered 4,000 petitions to Senator Scott Brown, urging him to once again vote with Main Street and pass Wall Street reform Legislation.

Advocacy groups that are working on this issue include MASSPIRG, Americans for Fairness in Lending, Greater Boston Legal Services, Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations, Massachusetts Jobs with Justice, Massachusetts Community Action Network, and the National Consumer Law Center.

“Bay Staters are sending a clear message,” said Lizzi Weyant, staff attorney at MASSPIRG. “We want meaningful financial reform to reign in Wall Street from the abusive practices that caused this financial crisis.”

The House of Representatives narrowly approved Wall Street reform legislation in December, and the Senate approved its own version of the bill in May. Members of the House and Senate are meeting right now to hammer out the differences between the two bills, and Wall Street lobbyists are continuing to work behind closed doors to weaken the bill.

“Big banks might have deep pockets, but we have the power of every person in the Commonwealth who signed these petitions,” said Heather Booth, Director of Americans for Financial Reform. “Congress must keep us in mind as they complete work on this bill.”

Advocacy groups want legislation that puts consumers and taxpayers before big banks by creating a new independent Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, reigns in reckless investments that escaped regulation, and prevents financial institutions from becoming “too big to fail.”

“We can’t wait another minute for financial reform: now is the time to reign in Wall Street,” said Weyant.

“Senate passage last night of the Restoring American Financial Stability Act, S. 3217, was long overdue relief for consumers and taxpayers in Massachusetts and the country. This bill to rein in Wall Street is a bill that Main Street will like. While the bill isn’t perfect, it includes strong measures to curtail Wall Street’s gamblings, regulate the shadow derivatives markets, protect consumers’ investments and prevent future economic meltdowns.

As the bill heads to a conference committee (a similar version was passed by the House of Representatives in December), we urge Congressional leaders to agree on the strongest provisions of the House and Senate bills while rejecting the efforts of lurking Wall Street lobbyists to weaken or delay passage of a strong final law.

The conference committee should finalize a bill that includes a strong, independent Consumer Financial Protection Agency, preserves authority for state attorneys general to enforce the laws, opens up the shadow markets where derivatives are traded, and ends, once and for all, ‘too big to fail.’ We applaud our Senators Scott Brown and John Kerry for voting for these important reforms in the Senate bill.”