Dear Friend,

Soon President Obama will sign into law a reform bill that fundamentally restructures our financial system to better serve consumers, investors and taxpayers, and cleans up the excessive and irresponsible behavior on Wall Street that caused a dangerous financial panic in 2008 and touched off the worst recession since the Great Depression.  This marks the last step in a two-year-long process of congressional oversight and investigation, committee hearings and an inclusive drafting process that brought elements of this legislation before three different House Committees.  The final package was the product of a two-week-long House-Senate negotiation, televised on C-SPAN.  I was proud to support the bill when it passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 237 to 192.

Throughout this process I have received hundreds of emails, letters and phone calls from individuals and businesses across my district.  I have worked with my colleagues to ensure that the views of my constituents were represented in the legislative process.  On many critical issues, the final Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act incorporated these views.  Elements of this regulatory reform package include comprehensive regulation of mega-banks and the financial instruments they developed; putting an end to “too big to fail” bailouts; curbs on excessive executive compensation; creation of a new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau; and greater oversight and transparency for credit rating agencies.  For more information about the bill, click here.

A long road

I participated in several hearings in the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform as well as the House Committee on Energy and Commerce that worked to investigate the root causes of the financial crisis.  The evidence was overwhelming that a decades-long ideological drive toward deregulation eliminated our capacity to accomplish one of government’s most basic missions—to keep our capital markets free of fraud, abuse, manipulation and double-dealing. To view video footage of me questioning executives at Lehman Brothers, click here.

The financial crisis that pushed our economy to the precipice of a second great depression was a result of many factors.  Most notably, a major decline in the housing market exposed fundamental flaws in the financial industry including the widespread use of meaningless underwriting standards and excessively risky investments that stretched reserves too thin.  It is my belief that past policies of lax regulation and oversight led to an "anything goes" culture within the financial services industry. This culture encouraged financial institutions to make bad loans, package them into risky securities, and sell them up the line so that they infected our domestic and global markets. As the crisis unfolded, the real victims of this crisis were America’s businesses and working families. 

The impact of the irresponsible fiscal policies of the last decade cannot be reversed immediately; but, through swift action at critical moments over the course of the past two years, we averted the global economic collapse that so many economists feared was possible and I believe we are now making strides toward recovery.  Some believe that we should have done nothing – let the market work its will.  But, I was increasingly convinced that if we did not do something to restore confidence in the financial markets, the real victims would be America’s working families as small businesses struggled and workers were laid off.  The Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act will make certain that some of the most egregious practices that led to the financial meltdown are things of the past. 

More work ahead

I will continue fighting for policies that give working Americans an opportunity to get ahead.  It’s time to make our economy work for regular Americans again and force the Wall Street crowd to live by the same rules as everyone else.

Many of you have written to me on this issue and I thank you for keeping in touch. I know that these are still difficult times and I am prepared to do whatever it takes to get our economy moving again.  Please consider forwarding this message along to others who may be interested in the work we are doing in the Congress. 

John P. Sarbanes