2006 Floor Statements

12/07/2006
Rep. Frank Floor Statement on Federal Deposit Insurance Act Amendment- "Mr. Speaker, I join with the gentleman from Texas in urging the House to pass this bill. It is an example, I think, of how we should be flexible in our approach to regulation. Regulation plays a very important role in a sensible, capitalist economy, but it can only play that role if it is flexible and appropriate, and overregulating does damage in ways different, but still quite tangible, than underregulating." (more)

12/06/2006
Rep. Frank Floor Statement on Export-Import Bank Reauthorization Act of 2006- "Madam Speaker, my congratulations to the two gentlewomen who are presiding over this bill. I think this is one more example, as this Congress draws to a close, of the way in which the Committee on Financial Services under the leadership of our retiring chairman, the gentleman from Ohio, Mr. Oxley, was able to deal in a very bipartisan way on issues that deserve to be bipartisan." (more)

09/06/2006
Rep. Frank Floor Statement on YouthBuild Transfer Act- "Mr. Speaker, I appreciate very much the yielding by the ranking member from the Education and Workforce Committee. I hope we are going to set some good examples for the body today. First, my friend from Illinois correctly noted that I am the ranking member of the Committee on Financial Services, which under this bill will lose jurisdiction over the program. And I cheerfully get up here to thank my colleagues for doing this. We are too consumed by turf in this body. I must say, having served on a number of committees, there is not a committee in the Congress that does not have more to do than any rational human being can handle. I wish people would be less concerned about turf." (more)

07/26/2006
Rep. Frank Floor Statement on National Security Foreign Investment Reform and Strengthened Transparency Act of 2006- "There was a threatening climate towards foreign direct investment a few months ago as a result of the reaction to the Dubai Ports. I thought it was a mistake to allow Dubai to be able to buy those ports, but I did think that the reaction against that threatened to jeopardize a very important source of support for the American economy, and that is foreign direct investment." (more)

07/25/2006
Rep. Frank Floor Statement on Expanding American Homeownership Act of 2006- "Mr. Speaker, we have a national goal of increasing homeownership. Homeownership is very important. I always want to make it clear to people that while homeownership is very important, it should not be considered all of our goal in the housing area. A large number of people, for economic reasons and other reasons, will be renters. It is a good thing if we can help people become homeowners, but we should not neglect the legitimate interests of renters." (more)

07/25/2006
Rep. Frank Floor Statement on Expanding American Homeownership Act of 2006- "Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague. And I must say, I am very pleased that, having worked together, that the relationship of ranking member of the full committee and ranking member of the subcommittee or chairman of a full committee and the chairman of a subcommittee, nobody planned that to work as smoothly. You have to work at it, and with kind of overlapping responsibilities. I am very proud of the very constructive work we have done together, along with our counterparts on the other side." (more)

07/12/2006
Rep. Frank Floor Statement on Credit Rating Agency Duopoly Relief Act of 2006- "Mr. Chairman, I thank the ranking member of the subcommittee for his leadership on this. The goals here do not divide us; the methods do. Maybe it is a little bit of a role reversal, but I think, as the gentleman from Pennsylvania has made clear, we believe that the SEC ought to be relied on more fully here." (more)

07/11/2006
Rep. Frank Floor Statement on Internet Gambling Prohibition and Enforcement Act- "Mr. Speaker, I strongly disagree with the gentleman from Iowa with whom I often agree. I don't disagree with him entirely. I will stipulate that there is nothing in the Bagavagida about gambling. But other than that, I don't think he got much right. He says that gambling on the Internet does not add to the GDP or make America competitive. Has it become the role of this Congress to prohibit any activity that an adult wants to engage in voluntarily if it doesn't add to the GDP or make us more competitive?" (more)

06/29/2006
Rep. Frank Floor Statement on Supporting Intelligence and Law Enforcement Programs to Track Terrorists and Terrorist Finances- "Mr. Speaker, people who want things to be done in a bipartisan manner should not engage in extreme partisanship at the outset. The resolution that is before us was drafted entirely by Republicans with no input from any Democrat, from the Intelligence Committee, from the Financial Services Committee, or anywhere else, and presented to us a little over 24 hours ago. We then asked for the right to offer amendments, or at least a substitute resolution. It was denied." (more)

06/27/2006
Rep. Frank Floor Statement on Flood Insurance Reform and Modernization Act of 2006- "Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I fully agree with the statement of the chairman, and I am very proud to say that this is part of an ongoing, bipartisan effort that this committee has undertaken. A few years ago, we found a flood insurance program which was both important but flawed in a number of ways, and we began, at the urging of our former colleague from Nebraska, Mr. Bereuter, and our continuing colleague from Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer), to make improvements. We have not been able to get everything we wanted, but we have improved it." (more)

05/16/2006
Rep. Frank Extension of Remarks on "The Endangered Land of Renter-World"- "Mr. Speaker, one of the most effective advocates for housing for people of moderate and low income to have served recently in our federal government is Nicolas P. Retsinas. Mr. Retsinas now directs the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University, and he recently published an extremely important and cogent article in the Boston Globe, on May 5. " (more)

03/29/2006
Rep. Frank Extension of Remarks on Defining Protectionism Down- "Mr. Speaker, one of the most disturbing trends that we have seen recently is that of those who would adopt rules abolishing any restrictions on the untrammelled flow of capital around the world, taking away from countries their sovereign rights to impose restrictions that serve legitimate national interests." (more)

02/15/2006
Rep. Frank Floor Statement on National Flood Insurance Program Enhance Borrowing Authority Act of 2006- "Mr. Speaker, I want to reinforce what the gentleman from Ohio, the chairman of the subcommittee, said. In the Committee on Financial Services, on a bipartisan basis, we marked up a bill that would authorize increased funding, but accompanied that with some reform." (more)