Bill Text: OR SJM11 | 2013 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Urging Congress to support efforts to reinstate separation of commercial and investment banking functions in effect under the Banking Act of 1933.
Spectrum: Moderate Partisan Bill (Democrat 20-6)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2013-07-06 - Introduction and first reading. Referred to President's desk. [SJM11 Detail]
Download: Oregon-2013-SJM11-Introduced.html
77th OREGON LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY--2013 Regular Session
NOTE: Matter within { + braces and plus signs + } in an
amended section is new. Matter within { - braces and minus
signs - } is existing law to be omitted. New sections are within
{ + braces and plus signs + } .
LC 4053
Senate Joint Memorial 11
Sponsored by Senator SHIELDS, Representatives KENY-GUYER, VEGA
PEDERSON, SMITH; Senators BOQUIST, STEINER HAYWARD, THOMSEN,
Representatives BARKER, BARNHART, BENTZ, BOONE, BUCKLEY,
DEMBROW, FAGAN, FREDERICK, GALLEGOS, GORSEK, HARKER, HOLVEY,
JENSON, LIVELY, REARDON, THOMPSON, TOMEI, WILLIAMSON, WITT
SUMMARY
The following summary is not prepared by the sponsors of the
measure and is not a part of the body thereof subject to
consideration by the Legislative Assembly. It is an editor's
brief statement of the essential features of the measure as
introduced.
Urges Congress to support efforts to reinstate separation of
commercial and investment banking functions in effect under
Banking Act of 1933.
JOINT MEMORIAL
To the Senate and the House of Representatives of the United
States of America, in Congress assembled:
We, your memorialists, the Seventy-seventh Legislative Assembly
of the State of Oregon, in legislative session assembled,
respectfully represent as follows:
Whereas an effective money and banking system is essential to a
functional economy; and
Whereas such a system must function in the public interest and
without bias; and
Whereas the Banking Act of 1933 (P.L. 73-66), commonly referred
to as the Glass-Steagall Act, was written, as stated in its
introduction, 'To provide for the safer and more effective use of
the assets of banks, to regulate interbank control, to prevent
the undue diversion of funds into speculative operations, and for
other purposes'; and
Whereas for 66 years following its passage in 1933, the
Glass-Steagall Act protected the public interest in matters
dealing with the regulation of commercial and investment banking
as well as insurance companies and securities; and
Whereas the Glass-Steagall Act was repealed in 1999, permitting
members of the financial industry to exploit the financial system
for their own gain in disregard of the public interest,
contributing to the greatest speculative bubble and global
economic crisis since the Great Depression of 1933; and
Whereas the worldwide economic collapse has left millions of
homes in foreclosure, has cost millions of jobs nationwide and
has put severe financial strain on states, counties and cities,
exacerbating unemployment and the loss of social services; and
Whereas many of the financial industry entities were bailed out
by the United States Department of the Treasury at a cost of
hundreds of billions of dollars to American taxpayers; and
Whereas within the hundreds of pages of the Dodd-Frank Wall
Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 (P.L. 111-203),
there are no provisions preventing universal banking, such as
prohibitions that would bar commercial banks and bank holding
companies from investing in, or undertaking substantial risks
involving, speculative securities and trillions of dollars in
derivatives exposure; and
Whereas Title II of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and
Consumer Protection Act vests the Federal Deposit Insurance
Corporation with the authority to seize depositors' funds to
recapitalize failing financial institutions; and
Whereas American taxpayers continue to be at risk for the next
round of bank failures; and
Whereas the Congress of the United States has been making
efforts to restore the protections of the Glass-Steagall Act; and
Whereas Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur and Congressman Walter Jones
introduced the Return to Prudent Banking Act of 2013 (H.R. 129,
113th Cong., 1st Sess.) in the House of Representatives, and
Senator Tom Harkin has introduced a companion bill (S. 985, 113th
Cong., 1st Sess.) in the Senate, that calls for reviving the
separation of commercial banking and the securities business in
the manner provided for in the Glass-Steagall Act; and
Whereas during the 112th Congress, the Return to Prudent
Banking Act of 2011 (H.R. 1489, 112th Cong., 1st Sess.) gained 84
bipartisan cosponsors and had listed among its cosponsors
Congressman Peter DeFazio, Congressman Earl Blumenauer and
Congressman Kurt Schrader, all from Oregon; and
Whereas the reinstatement of the Glass-Steagall Act has
widespread national support from prominent economic, banking,
labor, academic, legislative and business leaders, including the
American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial
Organizations, the United Federation of Teachers and the
International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers,
Thomas Hoenig, Vice Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance
Corporation, David Stockman, Director of the Office of Management
and Budget under President Ronald Reagan, and many others; and
Whereas 22 state legislatures have introduced measures urging
Congress to reinstate the provisions of the Glass-Steagall Act,
and four of these measures have been adopted; now, therefore,
Be It Resolved by the Legislative Assembly of the State of
Oregon:
That we, the members of the Seventy-seventh Legislative
Assembly, respectfully urge the Congress of the United States of
America to support the passage of the Return to Prudent Banking
Act of 2013 and to enact legislation that would reinstate the
separation of commercial and investment banking functions that
was in effect under the Banking Act of 1933, commonly known as
the Glass-Steagall Act; and be it further
Resolved, That such legislation should prohibit commercial
banks and bank holding companies from investing in stocks,
underwriting securities or investing in or acting as guarantors
to derivative transactions, in order to prevent American
taxpayers from being called upon to fund the bailout of financial
institutions in the amount of hundreds of billions of dollars,
and to secure a safe American banking system that can protect
deposits and supply needed credit for a productive economy; and
be it further
Resolved, That a copy of this memorial shall be sent to the
Senate Majority Leader, to the Speaker of the House of
Representatives and to each member of the Oregon Congressional
Delegation.
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