Carper Reacts to the Conclusion of the House-Senate Conference on Comprehensive Financial Regulatory Reform

WASHINGTON, DC – Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) released the following statement on the conclusion of the House-Senate Conference on comprehensive financial regulatory reform legislation:

"This is important progress in our ongoing effort to strengthen our financial system and our broader economy.  Over the course of the debate in the House, the Senate, and the final Conference Committee, this legislation has been greatly improved and will go a long way towards ensuring that Main Street will never again be on the hook for mistakes made on Wall Street.  

"One of the key changes made by the Conference Committee addressed the corporate governance provisions that could have undermined Delaware’s economy.  This provision is far better than what we started with in the original bill and the final language maintains state primacy in the area of corporate governance.  I have been working closely with Chairman Dodd and the other key members of Congress to make certain that they realize how critical this issue is for Delaware and those efforts were successful.

"The Conference Committee also maintained the spirit of my amendment on preemption which was adopted in the Senate with strong bipartisan support by a vote of 80 to 18.  The preemption language in the final legislation should provide consumers and financial institutions with the clarity and certainty they need."  

The legislation creates a new consumer financial protection bureau, ends taxpayer bailouts for so-called too big to fail institutions, sets up an early warning system to prevent future financial crisis, brings transparency and accountability to risky financial transactions, and provides businesses certainty so that they can plan for the future and start hiring more workers.