Iowa Congressman Bruce Braley says he’s frustrated with the U.S. Senate’s failure to pass the final version of the financial reform bill. The U.S. House approved the sweeping package on Wednesday. It creates a new federal agency to oversee the financial industry, but three key Republicans in the U.S. Senate have said they’re not sure they’ll support it.
The bill won’t pass without their support, as Democrats need 60 senators to unite in order to avoid a filibuster on the bill. Braley, a Democrat from Waterloo, says it’s been frustrating to watch. “At some point in time Senators on both parties are going to have to decide whether they can go back to their home states, look their voters in the eye if they fail to get the job done and complete the hard work of restoring fiscal sanity and how we regulate the market,” Braley says.
Braley calls the Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010 the “strongest set of reforms” congress has passed since the Great Depression. Congressman Leonard Boswell, a Democrat from Des Moines, says the legislation “will deter bank executives from excessive risk-taking and hold them accountable for their actions.”
Congressman Dave Loebsack, a Democrat from Mount Vernon, the bill sends this “clear message” to Wall Street: “clean up your act.”