04/18/2007
Rep. Frank Floor Statement on Shareholder Vote on Executive
Compensation Act-
"This is a bill to further the workings of the capitalist system of the United
States. It has one very specific provision. It says that the
shareholders, the owners of public corporations, will be allowed to vote
every year in an advisory capacity on the compensation paid to their
employees who run the companies. Now, Mr. Chairman, some might think
this is unnecessary. In a better world, it would be. But there is not
now any clear-cut, uniform, legal right for the shareholders to get such
a vote. Some corporations allow it, some do not. Some boards of
directors allow it, some do not. In a recent case, the SEC ordered AT&T
to allow such a vote, but it was because of certain circumstances. There
is no general principle that allows it." (more)
03/20/2007
Rep. Frank Floor Statement on Gulf Coast Hurricane Housing
Recovery Act of 2007-
"This is a bill which comes to this House about 18 months late. It is in
response to the problems of the hurricane in the gulf. It is the result
of very diligent work. One week after the committee was organized, the
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Waters), who is the Chair of
the Housing Subcommittee, and I began to work on this. We had a very
long all-day hearing in Washington." (more)
02/28/2007
Rep. Frank Floor Statement on National Security Foreign
Investment Reform and Strengthened Transparency Act of 2007-
"Last year the Bush administration made a grave error. A proposal came from the
country of Dubai to buy a company that ran our ports. The response from
the administration, and there was an intergovernmental committee called
the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. which Members will hear
us abbreviating as CFIUS, should have said to Dubai, you know, we have
found you to be a reasonable group of people, but you are in an area of
the world where there is great tension, where there are violent, armed
people who wish us ill." (more)
02/27/2007
Rep. Frank Floor Statement on Depository Institution Community
Development Investments Enhancement Act-
"Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 1066. It does occur to me on reflection
that we should have asked the gentleman from Florida and the gentleman
from Washington, Mr. Hastings and Mr. Hastings, to
join in supporting this bill given its number. But in their absence, I
will note that this is a bill that passed the House last year
unanimously as part of a larger regulatory relief bill that came out of
the Committee on Financial Services. It went to the Senate, and the
Senate passed much of what we sent them but not all of it."
(more)
02/27/2007
Rep. Frank Floor Statement on Seasoned Customer CTR Exemption
Act of 2007-
"Mr. Speaker, this is a bill to give more flexibility to our municipalities.
They are allowed to use Community Development Block Grant funds for
cleaning up brownfields. By the way, I do want to comment for a minute
on brownfields. We hear a great deal about public sector-private sector,
and I believe that people have unwisely seen this as if there was an
opposition. In fact, we need to cooperate, and I particularly here want
to call attention to an aspect of this bill that is relevant to those
who tend to see the private sector as the fountain of all benefits and
the public sector as somehow a source of negative activity."
(more)
01/23/2007
Rep. Frank Floor Statement on Seasoned Customer CTR Exemption
Act of 2007-
"Madam Speaker, this is an example of sensible regulation because sensible
regulation includes deregulation when that is appropriate. The Committee
on Financial Services reported this bill out last year. It passed the
House. Surprisingly it managed not to make it through the Senate. The
efficiency of that body failed us on this occasion apparently, but we
are going to try again. We believe in regulation, and this is an
important area where we provide information to our financial detectives,
and it is especially important with regard to terrorist financing."
(more)
01/12/2007
Rep. Frank Extension of Remarks on Defining Protectionism Down-
"Madam Speaker, Tim Geithner, President of the
Federal Reserve Bank of New York, combined economic and political wisdom
in a recent speech to the Council on Foreign Relations in which,
according to the report of the speech in the Financial Times, he told
that influential audience ' 'that the 'political challenge' of
sustaining support for integrating global economic integration 'may be
the most important economic challenge of our time.'"
(more)
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