PRESS RELEASE
One-Hundred-Sixty-Two Organizations Issue Call for Glass-Steagall
June 19, 2014 (EIRNS)—One-hundred-sixty-two organizations, representing millions of Americans, sent a letter to Senators on June 16, urging them to co-sponsor the 21st Century Glass-Steagall Act (S. 1282). June 16 marked the 81st anniversary of FDR’s signing the 1933 Banking Act, which included the Glass-Steagall banking separation provisions. Support for the initiative was coordinated by Public Citizen and Americans for Financial Reform.
“This letter demonstrates continued broad support for lasting financial reform and putting an end to taxpayer bailouts of ‘too big to fail’ banks,” said Susan Harley, deputy director of Public Citizen’s Congress Watch division. “Banking should be about institutions serving communities by providing needed financial services to businesses and families, not about banks gambling with taxpayer-insured deposits.”
S. 1282 was introduced by a bipartisan group including U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), John McCain (R-Ariz.), Angus King (I-Maine), and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.). It now has nine Senate co-sponsors. A companion bipartisan House bill, H.R. 3711, introduced by U.S. Reps. John Tierney (D-Mass.) and Walter Jones (R-N.C.) has 10 other co-sponsors. In addition, Rep. Marcy Kaptur’s bill to restore Glass-Steagall (H.R. 129) has 80 co-sponsors; a companion Senate bill by Sen. Tom Harkin has no co-sponsors.
Signatories of the letter include business associations, labor unions, law firms, faith organizations, state lawmakers, national and state consumer groups, and others. The text of the letter and the full list of signers can be found at http://www.citizen.org/documents/glass-steagall-afr-letter.pdf
Fox Business News made note of the letter in an article headlined “Support Builds for New Glass-Steagall Act,” based on a release by Consumer Reports. Consumers Union, the policy and advocacy arm of Consumer Reports, is one of the institutional signers of the letter.
