bennet: mr. president, as i mentioned earlier this week, we have before us an important opportunity to safeguard our economy from the conditions that drove our country into -- the presiding officer: can we please have order in the senate. take your conversations off the floor. the senator from colorado. mr. bennet: thank you, mr. president. to safeguard our economy from the conditions that drove our country into this catastrophic financial meltdown. the wall street reform bill we have before us takes critically important steps forward, helping to stabilize and safeguard our financial institutions, our financial system for consumers and businesses alike. but we should not stop here. this debate must be about making the underlying bill better. and i rise today to suggest one substantial way that we can rebuild the credibility of our financial system, save taxpayers' billions of dollars -- taxpayers billions of dollars and finally move toned the tarp. mr. president, i have an amendment at the desk n

bennet: thank you, mr. president. i will take a couple of minutes here. i have been here a less -- a smaller amount of time than anybody that's on this floor. the chairman has been here longer than i have been here, senator wyden, senator mccaskill and others. it's been about 15 months. what i can tell you is this place doesn't operate like any other place in the universe. the secret hold business that we're talking about right now just so people understand allows a senator to be able to hold up a nomination or piece of legislation without having to tell anybody who they are. now, i spent half my career in business. no business i have would have ever tolerated a tool like that. i have worked in local government. no local government that i have ever been part of would have tolerated a rule like that. there are city councils and state governments and county governments all over this country right now. by the way, they are probably still at work, unlike us, trying to figure out how to balance their budgets in the most savage economy since the great depressio

bennet: thank you you madam president. see our chairman and ranking member on the committee on which i serve. we're finally doing some work around here and doing it in a bipartisan way. and i think this bill is going to improve over the course of this debate. it is an enormously important tiewrnts to safeguard -- opportunity to safeguard our economy from the reckless danger that got us into this mess. i'm hopeful that we can wade through all this washington wrangling and get something done to protect america's financial future. madam president, there's a shared understanding of what got us here and that's the good news. some on wall street took all the risk, yet it's the american people who paid the price. small businesses, homeowners and working families were forced to clean up this mess. it's our responsibility to learn the lessons from the last collapse to help this economy recover and head off the kinds of problems that can lead to another financial crisis. in short, madam president, we have to fix this economy, ensuri

. >> one of the colorado most competent michael bennet. >> the choice baffled nearly everyone. bennett the superintendent of denver public schools had no legislative experience and had never run for elected office. >> thank you for your help. >> the entire political establishment was completely taken aback. >> all of the long-term democrats who had been elected to office felt they would have been good senators and run good races. >> by the time campaign 2010 rolled around that bad blood seemed to be negated by the $6 million war chest that bennett had amassed. and the full backing of the national democratic party and president barack obama. >> hello denver. i am thrilled to be here in support of a leader senator michael bennett. >> w whose administration was rumored to be trying to help bennett behind the scenes as well. >> when former state senate majority leader andrew roam nof watched the bid to unseed bennett the denver post reported the obama administration tried to entice him to boy out by offering him a position in washington. if so it didn't work. >> the last time i che

. >> one of the colorado most competent michael bennet. >> the choice baffled nearly everyone. the superintendent of denver public schools had no legislative experience and had never run for elected office. >> thank you for your help. >> the entire political establishment was completely taken aback. >> all of the long-term democrats who had been elected to office felt they would have been good senators and run good races. >> by the time campaign 2010 rolled around that bad blood seemed to be negated by the $6 million war chest that bennett had amassed. and the full backing of the national democratic party and president barack obama. >> hello denver. i am thrilled to be here in support of a leader senator michael bennett. >> w whose administration was rumored to be trying to help bennett behind the scenes as well. >> when former state senate majority leader andrew roam nof watched the bid to unseed bennett the denver post reported the obama administration tried to entice him to boy out by offering him a position in washington. if so it didn't work. >> the last time i checked the

bennet finished with about 39%. the senator is seeking a full u.s. senate term after serving since january 2009 as an interior secretary ken salazar. both candidates addressed the convention prior to the vote. rebegin with andrew romanoff -- we begin with andrew romanoff. [cheers and applause] >> thank you, colorado democrats. thank you. thank you very much for that warm welcome and a special thanks to my friend pauley and mary beth for their nominations. i want to begin this morning where i began by thank my mother who is here today. [cheers and applause] >> every i am or hope to be i owe to her more than anyone in the world. i am lucky to have the love and support of my uncle bill and my aunt sushi and my cousins melissa and mack who are here as well. thank you very much. i wish that my grandparents could be with me today. my grandmother rose was my secret weapon. she came to the state convention in pueblo in 1996 to help me get elected to the democratic national committee. she sat just inside the front entrance to the convention hall and she wore

bennet finished with about 39% of the votes. he is seeking a full u.s.term after sensing since -- after serving since january, to a dozen 9, -- 2009, after serving as a replacement for kenneth salazar who became the department of interior secretary. we now go to andrew romanov - andrew romanoff. here, baby ♪ >> thank you, colorado democrats, thank you. [cheers and applause] thank you your much for that warm welcome. i want to begin where i begin -- by thanking my mother who is here today. everything i am or hope to be i owe to her , more than anyone in the world. i'm fortunate to have the love and support of my uncle and aunt and cousins./ thank you very much. i wish that my grandparents could be with me today. my grandmother was my secret weapon. she came to the state conventions in pueblo in 1996 to help me get elected to the democratic national committee. she sat just inside the front entrance to the convention hall. she wore name tags that said, "andrew's nana." she used hurricane opal people toward her with one hand -- she used her cane to pupll peo

bennet: madam president, i'm joining my colleagues today in support of the effort that senator wyden and senator grassley have led to end the corrosive practice of the secret hold. this is a reform that is needed and cannot wait. i've been in washington for only about a year, but it didn't take that long to realize our government needs to fundamentally change the way it does business. coloradoans deserves a government that works for them. they're tired of the petty partnership in washington. they want their elected officials to listen and address that dare-to-day concerns. i cannot think of a worst example of this dysfunction than the secret hold. it is undemocratic and it's hurting our economy. quite a few of us in the senate, the chairman and i, have young daughters, young kids that are familiar with the ups and downs of a long car ride heading on vacation. the first hour always seems to go pretty well, full of excitement about where everybody's headed. but it isn't long before that excitement turns to restlessness and that restlessness turns to secretly doing everything they can t

michael bennet is now sseking a full u.s. senate term aater replacinn kenneeh sallzar, who became the interior secretary. llter today, the colorado pemmcrrtic partt convention will decide whether he qualifies for phs party's august 11 ppimaay. see that tonight starting at 8:00 eastern. >> supreme court justice sonia sstomayor on the confirmation >> questions, even over three days, are not going to tell you much about prospective judge you have to look at their life's work. that will be clear reflection of who they are, hhw they think, and what they will do. >> with the new nomineeeheading into the confirmation process, learn more abouu ur nation'')s highest court in our latest bbok, "candid conversations justices." but in some wayss it givvs ou sense oo what the country s thinking at that moment.. >> he looked behind the%+ institution of the u.s. senate, the upper house, sunday on c-3 >> noww a discussion on the electronii communicatioos privacy act of 1968. in the coming months, congress hearings on how best to update that l

position on those tables back over the years, but between senator tester and senator merkley and senator bennet, they kind of occupy that last three seats on the banking committee. and i saw that with great respect to all the rest who are on the committee. but those three new members on the committee have added tremendous value to our debates and particularly the senator from oregon has been wonderful in his concern about mortgages, prepayment penalties, what's happened to the 7 million foreclosures in our country, the 8.5 million jobs that got lost in our nation, and why we need to address this issue, why it is so critically upon. i want to make one more point about this raiment, the shelby amendment that may be lost on our colleagues here. in our bill there's no assessment on a nonbank or a bank. but there are assessments in this amendment. we just went through the tester-hutchison amendment to actually lower the assessments on community banks. what a great irony that the next amendment, those having supported the earlier amendment to reduce costs, this amendment sets assessments. community b