PRESS RELEASE
New York Joins States Considering Memorials Demanding Reinstatement of Glass-Steagall
April 27, 2017 (EIRNS)—New York State has become the 17th state where memorials demanding the reinstatement of the 1933 Glass-Steagall banking separation law have been introduced. On April 24 Assemblyman Phil Steck introduced a resolution “urging the New York State Congressional delegation to support efforts in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate to reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act.”
Steck’s efforts are complemented by the actions of State Senator James Sanders, who issued a letter March 17 urging his colleagues to sign on, and join him in urging the New York State delegation to support Rep. Marcy Kaptur’s H.R. 790, which would reinstate Glass-Steagall.
After laying out how the elimination of Glass-Steagall has harmed the economy, Assemblyman Steck’s resolution concludes:
RESOLVED: That this Legislative Body pause in its deliberations to urge the entire New York State Congressional delegation to support and enact in Congress the legislation that would reinstate the Glass-Steagall Act, including the separation of commercial and investment banking functions that were in effect under Glass-Steagall, thus securing a safe American banking system, which can protect deposits, and supply needed credit for a productive economy, protect state finances and the well-being of our citizens, and remove any national protection of investment in stocks, underwriting of securities or investing in or acting as guarantors to derivative transactions or other activities deemed “non-bank” activities under the Glass-Steagall law.
The other states where Memorials for Glass-Steagall (some of which locate it as the first step in a broader recovery program) have been introduced are (in alphabetical order): Alabama, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Mexico. North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, and Washington state. In Congress, H.R. 790 has 43 sponsors; S. 881, the Senate bill for a “21st Century Glass-Steagall Act,” has six sponsors, including Sen. Kirsten Gillebrand from New York State.
