Date: 1985-01-03
Speaker: ST GERMAIN (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Speaker. the 99th Congress. which convenes today. is almost certain to make major decisions which will shape the structure. function. and relationship of this Nations financial system. for decades. These decisions will have major domestic and international ramifications. What we door fail to dowill decide whether we have a system which promotes economic progress and equity among all economic classes in the delivery of services or whether we have a system constructed on the -quicksand of unfairness and anticomJanuary 3. 1985 CON. petitive factors certain to cause major disruptions in the American economy. Mr. Speaker. I sincerely hope that our colleagues. as .well as the financial Industry. the press and. most of all. the publicthe users of financial servicesunderstand the seriousness of the issues. Once the 99th Congress acts. I do not anticipate that we will be returning to this subject area in the near future. The answers we provide must be solid enough to last. Political and economic realities do not suggest the viability of annual tinkering. So. I sincerely hope that we will have the support of everyone in making certain that we do explore the issues. and that we do not play some kind of legislative "Russian Roulette" in shaping a financial structure that will meet the tests of the future. Too often. the debate about restructuring the financial Industry and granting new powers has been wrapped in the tired old cliches. Essentially. the industryall segmentshas Insisted that the Congress approach the issues as a balancing act between competing forces within the financial community. Once the teeter board is balancedever how precariouslythe rest of the world is supposed to accept the resultso the theory goes. Everything simply trickles down to the economy. to the users of bank services once the industry decides how it wants to structure itself. Mr. Speaker..I do not think the 99th Congress should accept this approach in considering financial legislation. We must make. a good faith effort to examine the needs of the economy and then try to match a restructuring and a set of new powers that meet those needs. We should not tryafter thefactto twist and cram the needs of the economy and the American public into the narrow confines of the financial industrys view of the economic future. On October 4near the close of the 98th CongressI signed a statement with Chairman JAKE GARN of the Senate Banking Committee and Senator WILLIAM PROXMIRE. the committees ranking minority member. assuring that legislation covering the competitive and regulatory structure of the financial system would have first priority in the new Congress. .We intend to make certain that the commitment is kept. As that October 4 statement clearly indicated. there is a strong bipartisan concern in both the House and Senate about nonbank banks and the army of loophole chasers that are out to circumvent the intent of the law. . While there .is a wide divergence of opinion about what the future of the financial community should be. I sense an overwhelming concern about these nonbank -banks and a desire to end this back door silliness forthwith. The problemand the need for immediate restatement of congressional policy--Is heightened by the attitudes and actions of a Comptroller of the