Today, U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter (CO-07), a member of the House Financial Services Committee, released the following statement about the national financial crisis and the vote on the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act:
“Today I joined with a bipartisan coalition of my colleagues in the House of Representatives and voted in favor of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act. However, the President was unable to muster enough votes from his side of the aisle and the bill failed.
While not perfect, I felt this bill was a vast improvement over the original proposal which was a blank check to the Administration, little to no oversight or taxpayer protections or a prevention of huge compensation packages for executives. After 10 days of careful consideration and difficult decisions, I felt we needed to do something to stabilize the markets and help hard working Americans. This bill included important taxpayer protections including recoupment of investments, purchasing of warrants and limitation on executive compensation. My vote was important to show a bipartisan effort to stabilize our markets and help those on Main Street in these hard economic times.
That being said, this bill can get better, and I think the failure of the bill today presents us with an opportunity to come back to the table and work together to create a better plan.
This is one of the most important pieces of economic legislation facing this nation in decades. Clearly, the fluctuations in the markets today demonstrate that we cannot give up on stabilizing the marketplace.
We are not going to come up with a solution overnight. But I will continue to work on this piece of legislation for as long as it takes to come up with a strong, responsible plan that stabilizes the market, protects taxpayers and helps rebuild economy.
