i will turn to my friend, dick shelby. >> thank you, mr. chairman.an dodd and i have worked and known each other for the last 30 years. we have been working to achieve a broad bipartisan agreement on how to reform our financial regulatory structure. although it has been a difficult endeavor, both the chairman and i have worked toigently to find middle fail. we believe that our regulatory structure needed to be modernized and streamlined. we agreed that the scope of the federal reserve's authority should be closely examined and that consumer protections needed to be strengthened. finally we agreed on the need to increase transparency, standardization, and competition. these broad areas of agreement were and i believe remain the foundation of bipartisan legislation. unfortunately such legislation continues to elude us today. however, that does not mean that an agreement is out of reach. the chairman's latest proposal contains a number of positive steps forward and could form the foundation for broad, bipartisan agreement. therefore i do not view today'

you heard dick shelby earlier this morning say that he thinks it's about 85 or 90% agreement on the bill that i've proposed. by democratic colleagues have issued very strong statements in support of it. the white house. barney frank has. nancy pelosi has. i wouldn't judge this by the fact that i stood alone. this was not a bill i drafted on my own. i worked very closely with my colleagues in doing this. >> woodruff: what do you say to senator corker's charge though that this is all driven by health care. he said you're a victim of the process. >> i appreciate that. >> woodruff: and the timing of health care. >> bob corker has been a good partner. in fact all of the sections-- there are 11 titles to this bill. on nine of them they're either a total agreement or substantial agreement. the one where there's almost total agreement is on the systemic risk council as well as on "too big to fail." bob corker and mark warner did a tremendous job in crafting over many many weeks the proposals included in those two sections as did judd gregg, jack reed and charles schumer. bob corker talking... cl

by the way, dick shelby, doug gray, were in discussions in a way that really do work for us. we made offer, and it was a accepted. we were down two issues i promise none of you ever dreamed of in your life. we were 20 rungs in treasury working through. if there is a conflict and the judgment, and how does that all work out? it got down to judicial issues. that is the fine tuning we got through as a consumer, but the major concept absolutely agreed to. >> what about independent ability of consumer agency to conduct compliancy? >> they had to go in and joint examination, which is always what we said, financial and consumer joined together -- >> conducted at the regulatory level? >> conducted at the regulatory level. what we are concerned about is that enforcement, and i think that is an area we were able to reach each other's accommodation. we accommodated on the democratic side issues, and we had to ensure enforcement would not be part of this entity. i think i have answered that. let me say, i am going to come clean on this. i think the rearranging of deck chairs is one of th

with that, let me turn to my friend, dick shelby. >> thank you, mr. chairman. chairman dodd and i have known and worked with each other on various issues for over 30 years. for the last several months we've been working to achieve a broad, bipartisan agreement on how to reform our financial regulatory structure. although it's been a difficult endeavor in many respects, both the chairman and i have worked diligently to find middle ground. i expect we will continue to do so in the future. when we began this process, the chairman and i shared many of the same goals. we both wished to end too big to fail. we believe that our regulatory structure needed to be modernized and streamlined. we agreed that the scope of the federal reserve's authority should be closely examined and that consumer protections needed to be strengthened. finally we agreed on the need to increase transparency, standardization, and competition. these broad areas of agreement were and i believe remain the foundation of bipartisan legislation. unfortunately such legislation continues to elude us

list here -- that have worked on this these issues, i also have colleagues like bob corker and dick shelbycan't reach those agreements. and i know in the face of everything you're hearing about congress these days, that nothing seems to be working here, we are making an effort, mr. president, to come up with a proposal here that will achieve those goals. a good, strong bill and one that will enjoy good, strong support in this institution. so with that, mr. president, i -- i hope i haven't talked too long but i wanted to give you at least a flavor of where things are today, and as i said, we're not done yet but i think we're in a pretty strong position to achieve a good, strong bill, one we can be proud of in this institution. and with that, mr. president, i yield the floor >> up next, remarks by former massachusetts gov. mitt romney. after that, health care çólegislation by rep john dinge. >> this week, on "america and the courts,"the australian sheep justice -- chief justice is hosted by the new york bar association. america and the courts, tomorrow at 7:00 p.m.ç easternn c-span. >> the

let me share some opening comments and i will turn to my colleague and friend dick shelby to make any opening comments he might have. by then, hopefully we will have a working corymb to proceed with motions. with that in mind, for three years, as we are aware, to win back to the first meetings in this. broom, home foreclosures. -- the facts are obvious.

by the way, dick shelby, judd gregg, mcconnell, others were in discussion that to make that in a way that worked for all of us, we made the offer and it was accepted. we were down to issues that i promise you and you never dreamed of in your life. we were 20 runs down in to four -- in treasury, working on whether there is a conflict and there is a judgment and how does it work out? it got down to judicial issues. that is the fine-tuning it got into on consumers. the major concept was absolutely agreed to. >> what about the ability of the consumer agency to conduct [inaudible] >> they had to go win on a joint examination, which is what they said. a joint examination -- conducted at the regulatory level. it was a huge win, but what we are concerned about is enforcement. that's an area where we were able to reach accommodation and we accommodated on the democratic side, the issues where we had to sure -- were we had to ensure enforcement would not be part of the round. i think the rearranging -- i'm going to come clean on this -- the rearranging of the deck chairs is one of the sillie

list here -- that have worked on this these issues, i also have colleagues like bob corker and dick shelby and others on that side to see if we can't reach those agreements. and i know in the face of everything you're hearing about congress these days, that nothing seems to be working here, we are making an effort, mr. president, to come up with a proposal here that will achieve those goals. a good, strong bill and one that will enjoy good, strong support in this institution. so with that, mr. president, i -- i hope i haven't talked too long but i wanted to give you at least a flavor of where things are today, and as i said, we're not done yet but i think we're in a pretty strong position to achieve a good, strong bill, one we can be proud of in this institution. and with that, mr. president, i yield the floor >> up next, remarks by mitt romney. after that, john dingell talks about his career in congress. then the joint economic committee reviews february employment figures. this week on america & the courts , the australian chief justice discusses -- the chief justice discusses the four l

obviously my relationship with bob corker, dick shelby, obviously members of my own, tim johnson, all critically important opinion, i talk to them all of the time. and again this bill will introduce this proposal on monday will reflect a lot of what those conversations have produced over the last several weeks. a few more questions. >> they figured the lehman brothers, how to do that? >> well, look, my hope is again we're not just dealing with one issue here. we're dealing with a set of issues that have ft. gone frankly unattended for almost 80 years. you go back to the 1930s since there's been any major effort to reform. we're not going to deal with every issue. but major issues. too boy -- too big to fail. that may be the single most important. we can regulate or provide the transparency of exotic instruments that contributed so much to the economic troubles we're in today. we need to fix that. we're getting close. we need to have the ability to look over and see what's going on in our economy. the idea that no one saw this coming, i don't buy. the idea of having a counsel in place

let me share some opening comments and then i will turn to dick shelby, a ranking member of the committee, to make any opening comments and then we will proceed from there. that helps, by that juncture we will have a working quorum to proceed with motions. with that in mind, for three years now, as all of us are aware, dating back to our first meetings in this very room on home foreclosures this committee has been studying causes and effects of the worst financial crisis since the great depression. the facts are obvious. some of the most prominent financial institutions in our nation have been destroyed or seriously weakened over the past years. as bad as that has been, the worst damage has been done to millions of our fellow citizens, ordinary families across the nation who did nothing wrong but are paying a terrible crisis -- terrible price for this crisis. a staggering 8.4 million jobs have been lost and the unemployment rate remains near double digits. far too many communities the rate of unemployment is over double-digit as many of us know. nearly 7 million have lost ground to forecl