Murkowski Opposes Financial Regulatory Reform Bill
WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, today released the following statement after voting against the financial regulatory reform bill:
"We all agree that Wall Street reform is necessary, but I have serious concerns that it will be America's community banks, credit unions, and small businesses - not Wall Street - that will bear the brunt of the pain under this bill. In the name of consumer protection, this bill proposes to create a massive new Washington bureaucracy with the authority to engulf huge swaths of our economy in burdensome regulation. Alaska's small financial institutions, car dealers, and even potentially our orthodontists could all be subject to costly new regulations under this bill. And we should be clear that it will be the consumer that will pay for unnecessary regulations through higher prices, a more intrusive government and less access to credit.
Moreover, the bill does absolutely nothing to address the role Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac played in nearly bringing down our financial system. So far, the bill to the American taxpayer for the Fannie and Freddie bailout is roughly $145 billion, and the losses keep mounting. If Congress were serious about ending bailouts, it would start by ending the bailouts to Fannie and Freddie; without that action and additional improvements to the bill, I could not support the measure."
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