PRESS RELEASE
Resolution for Glass-Steagall Filed in Iowa Senate, Marking Six States in January, with Motions for Congress to Act
Jan. 30, 2017 (EIRNS)—Senate Resolution 1 was filed in the upper house of the Iowa legislature on Jan. 19, calling for Congress to re-enact Glass-Steagall. In January so far, five other states have received similar resolutions—Delaware, New Mexico, South Carolina, Virginia, and Washington, with more states expected soon. In two of these states (New Mexico and South Carolina)—the demand for Glass-Steagall is the first of four measures spelled out for economic recovery, along the lines of the "Four Laws" for economic development, issued in 2014 by economist Lyndon LaRouche. On June 30, 2016, the Illinois General Assembly passed a resolution (HR 1092), the "American Recovery Program," with these four critical steps.
Click here for the texts of the six resolutions:
The Iowa resolution was introduced by Sen. Janet Petersen (D), who also will be chairman, this year, of the bi-partisan Midwestern Legislative Conference, a leadership and policy development group. She has introduced Glass-Steagall-support measures in past sessions. Petersen ran unopposed last November, for her next term in the Senate, where she has served since 2013; before that she had served in Iowa’s lower chamber since 2001. She represents the northwestern part of DesMoines, the capital.
The call in Iowa—the first primary state—for re-instating Glass-Steagall, was strongly put forward last Spring by former Gov. Martin O’Malley, whose demand was carried by the DesMoines Register in March 2016. Headlined, "Prevent Another Crash, Reform Wall Street," O’Malley’s article stated, "The most serious structural reform we can make is reinstating the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act that kept commercial banks separate from investment banks... If that law hadn’t been repealed in 1999, the crash would have been contained." His candidacy was then jettisoned by the Clinton DNC apparatus, for which Bernie Sanders became the contrived "also-ran."
Iowa S.R. 1, after nine "whereas" clauses, calls for the "Congress and the President of the United States to enact legislation that would reinstate the separation of commercial and investment banking functions in effect under the Glass-Steagall Act...."
