TAKING ON THE FINANCIAL SERVICES COMMITTEE
Sam Kahl
People have lately picked up on a provision in the recently-passed $2 trillion congressional relief law whereby one quarter is to be earmarked for stabilizing the financial services sector. At $500 billion, it is worth delving into, especially the provisions for leveraging this money through the Treasury’s Exchange Stabilization Fund. But no matter what, we will wind up face to face with the financial system itself to comprehend why extraordinary measures are habitually needed to keep it afloat. So, into the cloistered Financial Services Committee we, as ordinary citizens, will need to take the fight.
From: Office of Multnomah County Democratic Party
To: Financial Services Committee Chair Maxine Waters; H.R.2176 sponsor Marci Kaptur; Financial Services Committee bill cosponsors Tulsi Gabbard, Stephen Lynch, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib; Pacific NW bill cosponsors Peter DeFazio and Pramila Jayapal; Pacific NW committee member Denny Heck; Oregon congressional representatives Earl Blumenauer, Suzanne Bonamici, Kurt Schrader and Greg Walden; Democratic Party of Oregon (DPO) and DPO Congressional District chairs KC Hanson, Larry Taylor, Nathan Soltz, Leigha LaFleur, Laura Gillpatrick and Sean Nikas; and Oregon Democrats of 36 counties.
Purpose: to move from committee to enactment by Congress H.R. 2176 Return to Prudent Banking Act
Dear Friends and Associates:
Since 2009, the Senate’s 21st Century Glass-Steagall and House’s Return To Prudent Banking bills have pushed to reinstate the New Deal-era banking system known as Glass-Steagall. Since May 2011, the Multnomah County Democratic Party (MCDP) has resolved to enact this legislation. In 2013, the Oregon legislature joined forces with more than 20 other state legislatures and assemblies, together with mass mobilization of MoveOn and AFL-CIO, to pass this legislation.
From the proposed 2013 Senate Joint Memorial 11 of the Oregon Legislature (sponsors Sen. Chip Shields, Rep. Alissa Keny-Guyer and Rep. Jessica Vega Pederson with 23 cosponsors) we learn:
“Whereas the Banking Act of 1933, commonly referred to as the Glass-Steagall Act, was written, as stated in its introduction, ‘To provide for the safer and more effective use of the assets of banks, to regulate interbank control, to prevent the undue diversion of funds into speculative operations, and for other purposes’; and whereas for 66 years following its passage in 1933, the Glass-Steagall Act protected the public interest in matters dealing with the regulation of commercial and investment banking as well as insurance companies and securities; and whereas the Glass-Steagall Act was repealed in 1999, permitting members of the financial industry to exploit the financial system for their own gain in disregard of the public interest, contributing to the greatest speculative bubble and global economic crisis since the Great Depression of 1933; and whereas the worldwide economic collapse has left millions of homes in foreclosure, has cost millions of jobs nationwide and has put severe financial strain on states, counties and cities, exacerbating unemployment and the loss of social services; and whereas many of the financial industry entities were bailed out by the United States Department of the Treasury at a cost of hundreds of billions of dollars to American taxpayers; and whereas within the hundreds of pages of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010, there are no provisions preventing universal banking, such as prohibitions that would bar commercial banks and bank holding companies from investing in, or undertaking substantial risks involving, speculative securities and trillions of dollars in derivatives exposure; and whereas Title II of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act vests the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation with the authority to seize depositors’ funds to recapitalize failing financial institutions.”
In its current form (H.R. 2176), Return to Prudent Banking, remains locked in the Financial Services Committee of the 116th Congress, the sixth time the same bill has been legislatively entombed: 12/16/09 as H.R. 4377 in 111th Congress; 4/12/11 as H.R. 1489 in 112th Congress; 1/3/13 as H.R. 129 in 113th Congress; 1/14/15 as H.R. 381 in 114th Congress; 2/1/17 as H.R. 790 in 115th Congress; 4/9/19 as H.R. 2176 in 116th Congress.
We note four current committee members who cosponsor H.R. 2176: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, Rep. Rashida Tlaib and Rep. Stephen Lynch; two Pacific Northwest bill cosponsors: Rep. Peter DeFazio and Rep. Pramila Jayapal; and one Pacific NW committee member: Rep. Denny Heck.
We note, too, provisions in the Democratic and Republican Party platforms show agreement on Glass-Steagall.
From Republican Party Platform of 2016 under section “Government Reform, Regulation: The Quiet Tyranny,” we read: “We support reinstating the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 which prohibits commercial banks from engaging in high-risk investment.”
From Democratic Party Platform of 2016 under the section “Reining in Wall Street and Fixing our Financial System,” we read: “Wall Street cannot be an island unto itself, gambling trillions in risky financial instruments and making huge profits, all the while thinking that taxpayers will be there to bail them out again. . . Banks should not be able to gamble with taxpayers’ deposits or pose an undue risk to Main Street. Democrats support . . . an updated and modernized version of Glass-Steagall as well as breaking up too-big-to-fail financial institutions that pose a systemic risk to the stability of our economy.”
Pursuant to Congress’s Financial Crisis Inquiry Report of 2011, MCDP remains firm in the conviction that an economy is the product of human development concentrated in means of production, that money’s value is derived from facilitating this function, and that the circulation and trade of money as a commodity in its own right is parasitical to productive economy. As such, we estimate that the current financial system, with its debt-bubble architecture, remains unsustainable, which spells the erosion of the standard of living of people and the collapse of the system itself.
Therefore, we urge mobilization of action sufficient to enact H.R. 2176 as national law.
Yours truly
Lurelle Robbins, Chair, Democratic Party of Multnomah County
Faith E Ruffing, Chair, Platform, Resolution and Legislative Committee
Mitch Rofsky, Chair, Economy Study Group
Sam Kahl, Chair, Infrastructure Study Group
Send to (first dispatches):
Maxine Waters, Chair Financial Services Committee FSCDems@mail.house.gov
Alexandria Ocasio Cortez FSCDems@mail.house.gov
Rashida Tlaib FSCDems@mail.house.gov
Tulsi Gabbard FSCDems@mail.house.gov
Stephen Lynch FSCDems@mail.house.gov
Pramila Jayapal c/o susheela.jayapal@multco.us
Denny Heck FSCDems@mail.house.gov
DPO Chair KC Hanson, mailto:chair@dpo.org
DPO Congressional District 1 Chair Larry Taylor mailto:cd1@dpo.org
DPO Congressional District 2 Chair Nathan Soltz, mailto:cd2@dpo.orgDPO Congressional District 3 Chair Leigha LaFleur, mailto:cd3@dpo.org <llafleur.cd3@gmail.com>
DPO Congressional District 4 Chair Laura Gillpatrick mailto:cd4@dpo.org
DPO Congressional District 5 Chair Sean Nikas mailto:cd5@dpo.org
Democratic Party of Clackamas County chair@clackamasdems.org outreach@clackamasdems.org
Democratic Party of Clatsop County crashdavis9@gmail.com
Democratic Party of Coos County admin@coosdems.org
Democratic Party of Columbia County gpettit97@hotmail.com
Democratic Party of Deschutes County chair@deschutesdemocrats.org
Democratic Party of Douglas County info@douglasdemocrats.net
Democratic Party of Harney County chair@harneycountydems
Democratic Party of Hood River County hrdemocrats@gmail.com markstephenreynolds@gmail.com
Democratic Party of Jackson County Mail@JCDemocrats.org
Democratic Party of Klamath County chair@klamathdems.org
Democratic Party of Lane County office@dplc.org
Democratic Party of Lincoln County dems@lincolncountydemocratsoregon.com
Democratic Party of Linn County linncodems@dpo.org
Democratic Party of Marion County chair@mariondemocrats.org
Democratic Party of Polk County PolkCoDems@gmail.com
Democratic Party of Tillamook County fredbassettmusic@gmail.com
Democratic Party of Umatilla County bikerchick49@hotmail.com
Democratic Party of Washington County chair@washcodems.org wcdoffice@washcodems.or
Democratic Party of Yamhill County chair@ycdemocrats.org
Democratic Party of Los Angeles County, California chair@lacdp.org
Democratic Party of King County, Washington shasti.chairkcdems@gmail.com
Democratic Party of Pierce County, Washington kathyorlando72@gmail.com
Democratic Party of Erie County, Ohio eriedems@gmail.com
Democratic Party of Oahu County, Hawaii lorna.strand@gmail.com
Democratic Party of Hawaii info@hawaiidemocrats.org
Democratic Party of Queens County, New York info@queensdems.com
Democratic Party of Michigan midemparty@michigandems.com
Democratic Party of Wayne County, Michigan kwbailey@mac.com
Democratic Party of Massachusetts contact@massdems.org
