On the 9/17 edition of The Rachel Maddow Show (MSNBC), Ms. Maddow was joined by Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN). Ms. Klobuchar mentioned that in 2005, the administration passed up a GSE (Government Sponsored Enterprise) reform bill:
Mike Oxley led a bipartisan effort to better regulate Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, and he said, and this is a proper quote: "all I got from the administration was a one finger salute."
A proper quote, indeed. From the Financial Times, three weeks ago:
"All the handwringing and bedwetting is going on without remembering how the House stepped up on this," [Oxley] says. "What did we get from the White House? We got a one-finger salute."
More below the fold.
A google search for "got a one finger salute" yields a two-week old (9/10) NYT Blog posting from Paul Krugman which links directly to this Report from the Financial Times of London (9/9).
The FT report details the plight of one Congressman Mike Oxley (R-OH) - the former head of the House financial services committee and current vice-chairman of NASDAQ.
[Oxley] fumes about the criticism of his House colleagues. "All the handwringing and bedwetting is going on without remembering how the House stepped up on this," he says. "What did we get from the White House? We got a one-finger salute."
The House bill [109th Congress, H.R. 1461], the 2005 Federal Housing Finance Reform Act, would have created a stronger regulator with new powers to increase capital at Fannie and Freddie, to limit their portfolios and to deal with the possibility of receivership.
Oxley goes on to describe how he gained bipartisan support of the measure in the House (passing 331-90 on House Vote #547, 10/26/2005), but then failed to gain the support of the Bush Administration and the Senate (which at the time included both Obama (D-IL) and McCain (R-AZ)).
I found record of this bill on both OpenCongress and Govtrack:
"This bill never became law. This bill was proposed in a previous session of Congress. Sessions of Congress last two years, and at the end of each session all proposed bills and resolutions that haven't passed are cleared from the books."
Latest Major Action: 10/31/2005 Referred to Senate committee. Status: Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
The 109th Congress adjourned on January 3rd, 2007, which meant this bill (with broad, bipartian support in Congress) died after 14 months on the Senate floor.
The FT report continues:
...the legislation lacked a champion in the Senate and faced hostility from the Bush administration.
Adamant that the only solution to the problems posed by Fannie and Freddie was their privatization, the White House attacked the bill. Mr Greenspan also weighed in, saying that the House legislation was worse than no bill at all.
"We missed a golden opportunity that would have avoided a lot of the problems we’re facing now, if we hadn’t had such a firm ideological position at the White House and the Treasury and the Fed," Mr Oxley says.
When Hank Paulson joined the administration as Treasury secretary in 2006 he sent emissaries to Capitol Hill to explore the possibility of reaching a compromise, but to no avail.
This bill died in the hands of the Members of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, 109th Congress:
Democrats:
* Paul S. Sarbanes (Md.), Ranking Member
* Christopher Dodd (Conn.)
* Tim Johnson (S.D.)
* Jack Reed (R.I.)
* Chuck Schumer (N.Y.)
* Evan Bayh (Ind.)
* Thomas R. Carper (Del.)
* Debbie Stabenow (Mich.)
* Robert Menendez (N.J.)
Republicans:
* Richard Shelby (Ala.), Chairman
* Robert Bennett (Utah)
* Wayne Allard (Colo.)
* Mike Enzi (Wyo.)
* Chuck Hagel (Neb.)
* Rick Santorum (Pa.)
* Jim Bunning (Ky.)
* Mike Crapo (Idaho)
* John E. Sununu (N.H.)
* Elizabeth Dole (N.C.)
* Mel Martinez (Fla.)
Aren't some of these fine public servants out campaigning? John Sununu? Elizabeth Dole? Let's ask them what happened to the 109th Congress' H.R. 1461.