of congress who are with us today, including two former soldiers this academy knows well, senator jack reed [applause]ssman patrick murphy.- to all of theamilies here, especially the moms and dads, today is a tribute to you as well. your decision to come to west point was made by your sons and daughters, but it is you who instilled in them a spirit of service that has led them to this place in a time of war. on behalf of the american people, thank you for your example. thank you for your patriotism. [applause] to the united stes cadets, and most of all, the class of 2010, it is a singular honor to serve as your commander in chief. as your superintended indicated, under our system, my power as president is wisely limited, but there are some areas where my power is absolute. as your commander in chief, i hereby of solve all cadets who conduct offenses. [cheers and applause] i will lead the definition of "min -- i will leave the definition of "minor" to those who know better. today is your day, a day to celebrate all that you have achieved. we look forward the important service that lies ahead

yesterday senator jack reed of rhode island and senator scott brown of massachusetts offered an amendment to create an office of military liaison within the consumer financial protection bureau. that amendment will carry 9 -- amendment was carried 98-1, only one member voted against providing an office within that with the kind of protection that's the secretary of defense is talking about in his letter. the amendment, as i said carried by a vote of 98-1, because members here recognize that our service men and women service protection from these shady financial providers, including the major abuser, the kind that our colleague from kansas wants to exempt from this legislation. a crucial part of providing this is coverage of auto dealers. yesterday i received a letter from the secretary of the army, secretary mccue. he makes the point that auto dealers are the most significant financial obligation of our soldiers, particularly in the junior and enlisted grades. end quote. if my colleagues are listening at all, if we carve out auto dealers, those who make the loans that are the most signifi

president, i want to spend a few minutes, if i may, and i'd like to address the reed, jack reed of rhode island, and scott brown of massachusetts, the amendment that they offered earlier and was voted on earlier. i'd ask consent that my comments appear prior to the vote, if i may, as well. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. dodd: mr. president, i strongly support this proposal that was adopt add little while ago that was offered by our two colleagues from? he, senator reed of rhode island and senator brown of massachusetts. as both of these colleagues of ours speak with some authority on this amendment. jack reed of course is a graduate of west point and served for a number of years in uniform for our country with great distinction, i might add. senator brown has spent, as i heard him say, some 30 years in the national guard in the state of massachusetts, i believe. and so he can also speak with more than just passive authority about the importance of the amendment which they offer and which was adopted overwhelmingly, i'm proud to say, by our fellow colleagues here. i don't t

it strengthens the section that's already in senator dodd's fine bill where senator reed, jack reed, did great work, and now it goes a little further. but particularly i thank my colleague from minnesota for offering it really gets at the heart of the conflict of interest. you know, we can go around the conflict of interest. we can shine a mirror -- a light on the conflict of interest. but unless you get the heart of it, you're not going to undo the problem. and the senator from minnesota does that, and i really praise him for his fine work. i think if this amendment passes, it's going to be one of the lasting contributions and one of the most significant contributions to prevent a future crisis from happening. now, the nobel economist joseph seeinstieglitz said -- quote --i view the rating agencies as one of the key culprits. they were the party that performed the alchemy that converted the securities from f rated to a rated. the banks could not have done what they did without the complicity of the rating agencies." credit rating agencies played an important role, an unfortunate and

that is why senator lincoln senator jack reed of rhode island, senator judd gregg saxby chambliss andothers of our colleagues have worked so hard over these last number of months to bring the derivatives market out of the shadows and into the sunlight where they belong. that is why the derivatives language in this bill is so critically critically important if we're going to live up to our descriptions of this bill as a major reform of the financial markets in our country. for the first time in our nation over-the- counter derivatives would be regulated by the securities and exchange commission and the commodities future trading commission. it includes the banking committee's tough requirements for central clearing, exchange trading, capital margin reporting that are critical to reducing systemic risk and ensuring that taxpayers won't have to clean up the mess resulting from another a.i.g. implosion. i know the financial sector lobbyists don't like these rules. in fact, over 1,000 corporate lobbyists have flooded this town this body, in fact, in an attempt to water these proposals down

of congress who are with us today, including two former soldiers this academy knows well, senator jack reedatrick murphy.- to all of the famies here, especially the moms and dads, today is a tribute to you as well. your decision to come to west point was made by your sons and daughters, but it is you who stilled in them a spirit of seice that has led them to this place in a time of war. on behalf othe american people, thank you for your example. thank you for your patriotism. [applause] to the united states cadets, and most of all, the class of 2010, it is a singular honor to serve as your commander in chief. as your superintended indicated, under r system, my power as president is wisely limited, but there are some areas where my power is absolut as your commander in chief, i hereby of solve all cadets who conduct offenses. [cheers and applause] i will lead theefinition of "min -- i will leave the definition of "minor" to those who know better. today your day, a day to celebrate all that you have achieved. we look forward to the important service that lies ahead. you have push yourself thr

i know judd gregg is a really smart guy and jack reed both smart from both sides of the i/o that some issue will probably divide this group if we don't work it out. that is the consumer protection piece. i want to see consumer protection take place. i know the senator from connecticut knows i was serious about trying to resolve the issue in march. it is my hope of that we can come to terms of that. it is my hope we can create an appropriate balance so it is in balance with a regulation for people who do not do that on a regular basis to make sure the banking system is safe and sound and the institutions are not at this for those kinds of things but hopefully we can get that in balance i don't know the senator from connecticut wants to speak to this but it has a lot of people concerned as an agency is written today they don't have appropriate checks and balances with the wrong type of leadership over time them possibly i hope over the course of the debate we have the ability to achieve that balance where people across the country wake up on a daily basis not directly involved in the fi

, wayne allard, who is no longer with us of colorado, senator sarbanes, jim bunning of kentucky, jack reed of rhode island and jack schumer. the letter is push regulators for guidance for subprime mortgages. that's in 2006 that we sent that first letter. we were in the minority, we democrats. in april of 2007, we sent another letter to chairman bernanke, and here we said that our committee had held two hearings this year on the problem of subprime mortgage rates. this is in february and march of 2007, three years ago, at the hearings a number of committee hearings raised concerns that the regulators have not kept space with the deteriorating of unfair lending practices. in addition we're concerned that the federal reserve board has not exercised its obligations under the homeownership and equity protection act of 1994 to issue regulations that address the problems of predatory lending. the letter goes on for two or three pages. that was in april of 200 -- that was signed by myself senator reed, senator schumer, senator bayh, senator cocker, senator sherrod brown, senator casey and senator

>> democratic conferees are chris dodd, tom harkin, tim johnson, patrick leahy, blanche lincoln, jack reed, and charles schumer. the republican nominees will be saxby chambliss, bob corker, mike crapo, judd gregg, and richard shelby. in a few moments, a house republican initiative for public input into their congressional agenda. in about 40 minutes, the hearing on the gulf of mexico oil spill to consider raising the liability limit for those responsible. after that, senate republicans spoke with reporters about their meeting with president obama. and later, president obama at a fundraiser tonight for california senator barbara boxer. >> this holiday, non-fiction books and authors on "book tv." sebastian younger and his newest book "war," imbedded with the 173rd in afghanistan. and john hofmeister. get the whole schedule at "book tv".org. >> house republicans have began an effort to create a policy agenda of republican input. this will be led by california representative kevin mccarthy. he the other g.o.p. leaders held a 40-minute briefing at the museum in washington. >> good morning, ever

senator gregg and jack reed have worked on that issue. my hope would be that -- on this subject matter, which the senator has explained and talked about, and u.a.e.ppreciate his comments this morning -- and appreciate his comments this morning -- that thans area where there would be an effort to develop a bipartisan approach. it is a complicated area of law, and it would be, i think, in everyone's advantage if there was a lost communication back and forth to try and come up with some ideas that we might be able to change some strong bipartisan support on. i know he's tried to do that. i'd just encourage him to keep that up so we can end up with some good answers to this. i am very grateful to him for his interest in the subject matterment and my determination this morning is to move along on this amendment process. i thank him very much. mr. chambliss: i thank the chairman. mr. dodd: mr. president, i see our colleague from wyoming. and if he's ready toarks i'll yield the floor. -- and if he's ready toarks i'll yield the floor. and if he's

consumer protection agency, and i'm still working with many of my colleagues, including senator jack reednd senator durbin, to strengthen the provisions of the bill proposed by chairman dodd. one of the key authorities of any new consumer protection division or agency is that it must be able to adopt rules to protect consumers without being overruled by banking regulators who would rather allow tpwaofrpbgz pad their bottom lines by -- allow banks to pad their bottom lines. some argue you can't split consumer protection from safety and soundness, but historically, in the present setup, every time there's a conflict, the consumer loses. consumers deserve an accountable regulator with oversight of consumer financial products as its primary objective, not as an afterthought. the republican proposal being discussed is totally inadequate. it would allow the same bank regulators who stood in the way of meaningful consumer protection for years to veto consumer protection rules proposed by the head of the division -- of the new division. for example, the comptroller of the currency who publicly op

urge my colleagues to review, if they care to the 40 pages of effort we made in our bill -- and jack reed of rhode island deserves a lot of credit for having worked particularly hard on the rating agency issue in our committee and subcommittee dealing with securities. we think a strong bill in these areas wil -- i'll be the last to says it's perfect. we did our best to find a way to get far better accountability and responsibility out of the -- out of the credit rating agencies. there's just a great concern here that accountability and responsibility needs to be taken into consideration. i said, our bill has 40 pages of safeguards to strengthen the s.e.c., empower investors, and to make rating agencies far more accountable and responsible. with that, madam president, i yield the floor. ms. snowe: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from maine. ms. snowe: thank you, madam president. i rise to speak today on amendment number 3883, which is now pending, that i had introduced with my friend and colleague from arkansas, senator pryor, and i also ask unanimous consent that senat

i've asked senator jack reed of rhode island who chairs the subcommittee dealing with the securitiesd exchange commission to prepare for hearings on the stock market issue so we can get to the bottom of what happened. and as i mentioned, our staff is working to assure that our government does its part to help contain the crisis in europe, least to watch it and determine whether or not there's any spillover effects. but these events are a reminder, mr. president that, our work on this legislation must look through the windshield at the crises to come, not just in the rear-view mirror at the one which we are now just emerging from. and they are a reminder further that our work does not end with this legislation. i'd urge my colleagues to join us in making a final push to get this bill done so we can move on to those other emerging issues. and when we do, we can face these challenges with the knowledge that we have strengthened our financial system that. although we cannot prevent crises from occurring, we can prepare for them so their effects are not felt by ordinary americans to the e