S10548 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE November 17, 2008 

drive down Camelback Road in Phoenix, where we have a lot of car dealerships, 6 months from now and some of 

those companies have asked for chapter 11 protection, I guarantee you, I 

will not know which ones. They will all 

have the same bright lights, the same 

eager salesmen ready to sell me something. With reorganization, you don’t 

go out of business. 

One of the myths is that this would 

put you out of business. If you take 

bankruptcy under chapter 7, you do go 

out of business. That is not what chapter 11 protection is at all. In fact, you 

are able to reorganize, and that is precisely why people would continue to 

buy the cars. 

Not everybody is going to lose their 

job through reorganization. I doubt 

that it would be more than a fraction 

of the people who would lose their jobs. 

Doug Baird, a bankruptcy professor at 

the University of Chicago, recently 

said, in response to the number 3 million which people have been bandying 

about: 

This three million figure is laughable . . . 

modern bankruptcy law is designed to protect against that. 

The bottom line is, there is a law 

that provides protection, breathing 

room, and an ability to get rid of the 

kind of debts burdening these companies. If all we do instead is throw $25 

billion at the problem, none of this protection comes into play. None of the 

ability to renegotiate what is dragging 

them down now would occur. It would 

simply literally be throwing good 

money after bad without a justification 

of why these companies, as opposed to 

many other companies in the country, 

were to receive that help. 

The money has to come from somewhere. It has to come from people who 

are working hard to make a go of it 

themselves. So we have to ask the kind 

of hard questions like this before we 

ask our fellow citizens to cough up the 

money for this kind of a bailout. I hope 

we will be able to do that during the 

debate on this legislation, which I hope 

we will see soon, assuming we are 

going to be deciding whether to vote on 

it this week. 

Thank you, Mr. President. 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Colorado is recognized. 

f 

AMERICA: A WORK IN PROGRESS 

Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, I rise 

today to celebrate this historic time in 

the history of the United States of 

America. 

I give my accolades to Presidentelect Obama and to Vice Presidentelect BIDEN for their transformative 

and historic campaign and election. 

I also recognize Senator JOHN

MCCAIN as a friend and for his extraordinary contributions to our Nation. I 

am certain Senator MCCAIN will continue to serve as a force for good on the 

floor of this Chamber, as he has for so 

many years. I look forward to working 

with him. 

Just a few short years ago, Presidentelect Barack Obama arrived in the Senate in the 109th Congress as an unlikely occupant from the Illinois State 

Senate. 

President-elect Obama’s story is an 

American story. The son of a mother 

from Kansas and a father from Kenya, 

he learned the values of hard work and 

service to others. He studied at some of 

our Nation’s finest schools but chose to 

apply his immeasurable talents to serving the people: a community organizer, 

an Illinois State senator, a U.S. Senator, and soon to be the President of 

these United States of America. 

President-elect Obama is, in fact, the 

personification of the American dream 

and the idea of what it is to be an 

American. His election is also a reminder of just how far our country has 

come. 

America has always been a work in 

progress—an idea that generation after 

generation has worked to perfect. We 

must never forget that for over 250 

years on this continent, and through 

the first century of this Nation, we 

lived in a society where slavery was allowed. 

It took the bloodiest war of our country’s history—the Civil War—where 

over a half million Americans were 

killed on our own soil, to bring about 

an end to slavery and to usher in the 

13th, 14th, and 15th amendments of our 

Constitution. These three amendments, 

in my view, are a significant part of 

the bedrock proposition that all constitutional liberties are endowed upon 

all Americans without exception. 

Unfortunately, neither the Civil War 

nor these amendments brought an end 

to the division or discrimination that 

were a part of our Nation’s past. 

In 1896, in Plessy v. Ferguson, our 

U.S. Supreme Court sanctioned a system of segregation under the law. The 

Court upheld an 1890 Louisiana law 

which mandated racially segregated 

but equal railroad carriages. It was a 

dark period in our Nation’s history. 

‘‘Jim Crow’’ laws extended across the 

South. In the Southwest, Mexican 

Americans were also systematically 

denied access to ‘‘White Only’’ restrooms and other public places. In the 

South, the signs read: ‘‘No Blacks Allowed.’’ In the Southwest in many 

places the signs read: ‘‘No Mexicans Allowed.’’ 

There were, however, many voices 

who knew that an America divided by 

race was an America which could not 

stand. In the now infamous Plessy 

case, Justice Harlan, in the dissent to 

that case that sanctioned segregation 

under the laws, said the following: 

The destinies of the races, in this country, 

are indissolubly linked together and the interests of both require that the common government law shall not permit the seeds of 

race hate to be planted under the sanction of 

law. 

It took more than a half century of 

an America in progress to revisit its 

decision in Plessy v. Ferguson and to 

begin achieving the vision of Justice 

Harlan. It was not until 1920 that our 

Constitution guaranteed the right to 

vote to women. In fact, for the first 

several hundred years women were not 

entitled to vote in the United States of 

America. It was not until 1954, in 

Brown v. Board of Education, that the 

Supreme Court, under the able leadership of Chief Justice Earl Warren, 

struck down the ‘‘separate but equal’’ 

doctrine as unconstitutional under the 

14th amendment. Thurgood Marshall, 

another American hero of ours who 

gave his life for equal opportunity for 

all Americans, argued that case before 

the U.S. Supreme Court. 

But even after the 1954 decision in 

Brown v. Board of Education, there was 

much more work to do. The 15th 

amendment, ratified in 1870, guaranteed all citizens the right to vote regardless of race. But almost a century 

later—in 1965—only a very small percentage of African Americans were registered to vote in States such as Mississippi and Alabama. 

In 1965, for example, in Mississippi, 

only 6.7 percent—6.7 percent—of African Americans were registered to vote. 

In Alabama, less than 20 percent of African Americans were registered to 

vote. 

To prevent people from voting, there 

were literacy tests, poll taxes, and language barriers, not to mention voter 

intimidation and harassment, which 

occurred in those days in the 1960s. 

But the 1960s also brought change to 

America and ensured that we continued as an America in progress. In 1964, 

President Lyndon Johnson signed the 

Civil Rights Act. In signing that law, 

he said: 

We believe that all men are created equal, 

yet many are denied equal treatment. We believe that all men have certain unalienable 

rights, yet many Americans do not enjoy 

those rights. We believe that all men are entitled to the blessings of liberty, yet millions 

are being deprived of those blessings, not because of their own failures, but because of 

color of the skin. 

Our work, President Johnson said 

that day, was not done. He was right. 

In early 1965, Jimmy Lee Jackson 

was shot by a State trooper during a 

civil rights demonstration. 

On March 7, in Selma, AL, more than 

500 nonviolent civil rights marchers attempting a 54-mile march to the State 

capital to call for voting rights were 

confronted by an aggressive assault by 

authorities. That day, still known and 

remembered as Bloody Sunday, stirred 

a nation to do what it knew was right. 

President Johnson, in those days, 

called for the country to summon its 

better angels. He said: 

At times history and fate meet at a single 

time in a single place to shape a turning 

point in man’s unending search for freedom. 

So it was at Lexington and Concord. So it 

was a century ago at Appomattox. So it was 

last week in Selma, Alabama. 

President Johnson continued: 

This time, on this issue, there must be no 

delay, no hesitation and no compromise with 

our purpose. We cannot, we must not, refuse 

to protect the right of every American to 

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November 17, 2008 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — SENATE S10549 

vote in every election that he may desire to 

participate in. 

On August 6, 1965, President Lyndon 

Johnson signed the landmark legislation—the Voting Rights Act—that 

opened the doors of democracy to all 

Americans. 

In our country’s history, yes, we have 

stumbled. But yet at each stumble, 

leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther 

King, Rosa Parks, and Cesar Chavez, 

and many others, have encouraged us 

to get up, to stand up, to move America forward. 

We, like them, believe America truly 

is an America in progress. Today, 

thanks in large measure to their work, 

we are at the dawn of a new America, 

an era in which doors of democracy and 

opportunity are open to all Americans. 

We are waiting today for the inauguration of the first African-American 

President in the history of the United 

States. That in itself is history. But 

what is also historic about this reality 

is that as President he will be President for all 325 million people of America. 

In his election, I think you see the 

statement that is truly the American 

ideal: that no matter who you are, no 

matter where you are from, anything is 

possible in this America of ours. That 

is what makes us a great nation. That 

is what we have seen as an America in 

progress which has brought us to this 

point in our Nation’s history. 

We have much work to do ahead. But 

I am very confident that America’s 

best days are still ahead, as we continue to be the beacon of hope and opportunity and human possibilities for 

the entire globe. 

Mr. President, I thank you and yield 

the floor. 

The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maine is recognized. 

f 

THANKING THE PEOPLE OF MAINE 

Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, since 

this is the first time I have spoken on 

the Senate floor since the elections 

have been completed, let me say I am 

very honored the people of Maine have 

chosen me to represent them in the 

Senate for another 6 years. It is a great 

honor and privilege to represent the 

great State of Maine, and I want to 

begin my remarks this afternoon by acknowledging that. 

f 

FINANCIAL REGULATION REFORM 

ACT OF 2008 

Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, 

throughout the past few months, I have 

had the opportunity to talk to literally 

thousands of Mainers, and the No. 1 

issue that has been on their mind is the 

financial crisis, the poor state of the 

economy. 

Public confidence in our Nation’s financial system has been shaken badly 

by the extent, the scope, and the rapidity of the financial meltdown. As a 

former financial regulator in the State 

of Maine, a position I held for 5 years, 

I have become convinced that significant regulatory reforms are required to 

restore public confidence and to ensure 

that the absence of regulation does not 

allow a crisis like the one we are engulfed in now to happen ever again. 

Therefore, today I will introduce a 

bill that would close two dangerous 

gaps in the Government’s system for 

overseeing financial markets. The bill 

would also establish a formal process 

for developing additional, comprehensive reforms of our financial regulatory 

system. 

Our economy has struggled with a 

credit crisis spawned by mortgage defaults in the subprime mortgage market and their ripple effects throughout 

markets for mortgage-backed securities. Complex financial instruments 

that were poorly understood, not transparent, and, in many cases, not regulated have exacerbated the crisis. 

What was once thought of as America’s mortgage crisis has metastasized 

into a nightmare of converging forces 

that could lead to a deep and global recession. As we have so painfully 

learned, financial markets are truly 

global, and the hopes and fears that affect these markets move with the speed 

of light through electronic communications and electronic trading. 

The consequences in our country 

have been dire: falling home prices, rising foreclosure rates, plunging consumer sales, increased unemployment, 

a tremendous erosion of retirement 

savings, and billions of dollars for 

emergency stabilization programs. We 

are even looking at a Federal deficit 

that could reach the extraordinary figure of $1 trillion. 

The Maine lobster industry, the paradigm of hardy, small town entrepreneurship, has also felt the blows of the 

crisis in high finance and a terrible 

economy. It is not only that consumers 

have reacted by reducing their purchases of lobsters—although that is 

one factor—it is also that the lobster 

industry is an innocent victim of the 

global financial crisis. 

It is extraordinary that the global financial crisis is putting the very existence of Maine’s centuries-old lobster 

industry in jeopardy. 

Here is what happened. In addition to 

plunging demand, many lobstermen in 

Maine send their lobsters to Canadian 

processors. Well, it turns out that 

those Canadian processors are, in turn, 

financed largely by financial institutions in Iceland—in Iceland. 

When the Iceland financial system 

collapsed, credit was terminated to the 

Canadian processors, which, in turn, 

stopped processing Maine lobster. Who 

would have guessed that the failures of 

banks in Iceland would claim as victims the lobstermen in the State of 

Maine? But that shows how integrated 

our financial system is worldwide. A 

lobster dealer in my State said: 

This is as devastating to the State of 

Maine as Hurricane Katrina washing away 

all the boats and blowing down all the 

wharves. 

Nor is the fallout from the financial 

crisis confined to our shores. This past 

weekend, leaders of the G–20 nations 

who represent 85 percent of the world’s 

economic activity met in Washington 

to address this crisis. Clearly, we need 

a coordinated global response to the 

downturn, but we also must take action to right our own ship. As we close 

out the 110th Congress and prepare to 

reconvene for the 111th, we must consider how to protect our financial system from the shortfalls in regulation, 

reporting, and transparency that 

helped lay the groundwork for a sudden 

and traumatic onslaught of bad economic news. 

Consider that less than a year ago, 

the American financial system boasted 

five huge investment bank holding 

companies: Bear Stearns, Lehman 

Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Goldman 

Sachs, and Morgan Stanley. Today, 

those institutions no longer exist as we 

had long known them. They have failed 

or are being acquired or, as Goldman 

Sachs and Morgan Stanley demonstrate, have converted themselves to 

bank holding companies subject to 

Federal Reserve supervision. What is 

astonishing, however, is that current 

Federal law assigns no agency responsibility for supervising these enormous 

institutions, even though experience 

has shown their safety and soundness 

could have vast implications for the financial system and the broader economy. Think about that. Your local 

credit union, your small community 

bank is subject to safety and soundness 

regulations, but these enormous Wall 

Street financial institutions that arguably have a far greater impact on our 

economy have not been subject to safety and soundness regulations. Instead, 

they participated in a completely voluntary program of the Securities and 

Exchange Commission—a program that 

was later deemed as inadequate by the 

SEC Chairman as he canceled it this 

fall. 

My legislation would apply safety 

and soundness regulation to investment bank holding companies by assigning the Federal Reserve this responsibility. Although the five big 

firms have left the field, this is a necessary step. Any new investment bank 

holding company that might be organized would fall into the same regulatory void as its predecessors. The 

SEC would be able to regulate its 

broker-dealer operations, but no Federal agency would have the explicit authority to examine its operations for 

safety and soundness or for systemic 

risk. The collapses at Bear Stearns and 

Lehman Brothers illustrate the tremendous hardship that can result 

under the recent voluntary system. 

Federal financial officials have also 

pointed to a ‘‘massive hole’’ in their 

ability to monitor and manage systemic risk. That is the rapidly expanded markets in private, over-thecounter contracts known as ‘‘credit default swaps.’’ These are contracts that 

involve paying for protection against 

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