Senate Proceeding on Oct 7th, 2009 :: 5:14:00 to 5:25:30
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5:13:58 to 5:14:18( Edit History Discussion )

Barbara Mikulski: quorum call: a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. ms. mikulski: mr. president, i ask that the call of the quorum be vacated. the presiding officer: without objection. the senator from maryland is recognized. ms. mikulski: mr. president, i know that we're debating here the nature of the quest

5:14:00 to 5:25:30( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Barbara Mikulski

5:14:19 to 5:14:39( Edit History Discussion )

Barbara Mikulski: should be asked on the census and our colleague, senator carper of delaware, is in a matter of minutes holding a hearing on the census. and at that hearing he's going to seek some clarification on this and report back to us. as we continue the debate on that amendment, i also want to

5:14:40 to 5:15:01( Edit History Discussion )

Barbara Mikulski: bring to the senate's attention some of the very important things that are in this bill. we want to move this bill forwar i want to move this bill forward. orderly, civil, rationale way the pending amendment of vitter

5:15:02 to 5:15:23( Edit History Discussion )

Barbara Mikulski: amendment in the -- on the census. we want to move this bill forward. we want to do everything that we can if this -- so this bill passes by the end of this week so we can go to conference and be able to move very important funding, particularly in the area of law enforcement forward. this is absolutely a very

5:15:24 to 5:15:44( Edit History Discussion )

Barbara Mikulski: compelling need. and when we think about law enforcement, yes, we can think about law enforcement with illegal aliens, yes, we can also think about law enforcement with violent criminals, and we do deal with that in our but, mr. president, we're also

5:15:45 to 5:16:05( Edit History Discussion )

Barbara Mikulski: very much focused on white-collar crime. and one of the areas we have worked on a bipartisan basis in this bill is in the issue mortgage and financial fraud. so as we're debing amendments that are to have the people of america to know we're on their side and

5:16:06 to 5:16:26( Edit History Discussion )

Barbara Mikulski: that we can do it on a bipartisan basis. one of the great pleasures of being on the committee is my ranking member, vice some people might call senator shelby, is the ranking member in the banking committee. we have put our heads together on how

5:16:27 to 5:16:47( Edit History Discussion )

Barbara Mikulski: financial fraud, and he brought great expertise from his work on the banking now are looking at what we can do by putting the money in the those engaged in predatory practices, deceptive marketing, and lending schemes. now, mr. president, you know

5:16:48 to 5:17:08( Edit History Discussion )

Barbara Mikulski: from your background as a legislator and a community leader that where there's need, there is often greed and often scams and we see it in the business. there are so many unsuspecting people who wanted j of the american dream that were

5:17:09 to 5:17:29( Edit History Discussion )

Barbara Mikulski: lured into some of the most deceptive practices that we have not seen in our country for several decades. and they do they are an septic namesut -- they are antiseptic names but they mean a lot -- predatory practices, deceptive m lending schemes, flipping. and the consequences have been

5:17:30 to 5:17:51( Edit History Discussion )

Barbara Mikulski: enormous. during the past year, financial institutions have written off $500 billion of fraud in the sub prime mortgage industry. $500 billion in losses. that's a lot when you think

5:17:52 to 5:18:12( Edit History Discussion )

Barbara Mikulski: try to stabilize housing, to try to stabilize our mortgage industry. numerous publicly traded financial declared bankruptcy or have been taken o government. now, i don't mean to imply that being taken over by the feds was all due to the fact that they

5:18:13 to 5:18:33( Edit History Discussion )

Barbara Mikulski: had been involved in fraudulent schemes, but it is time to say no more. what we want to be able to do is to go after the scammers who have caused americans to lose their homes, their life savings, and their dignity. yes, i worry about the financial institutions, but i worry about people who put their money in

5:18:34 to 5:18:54( Edit History Discussion )

Barbara Mikulski: the bank or took these loans that caused them to have balloon payments, excessive interest rates, two, three, four, five mortgages, all of which were just unable to be lose their homes. we on this committee,

5:18:55 to 5:19:18( Edit History Discussion )

Barbara Mikulski: want our senate colleagues to no more preying o american families. so what did senate do? senator mikulski, you don't have to use a lot of rhetoric, but it well, we are -- we a going to do it.

5:19:19 to 5:19:39( Edit History Discussion )

Barbara Mikulski: we're going to put in the justice department to combat financial fraud able to do what we need to do. this is a 63 million-dollar increase over fiscal 2009. we're going to hire new agents,

5:19:40 to 5:20:00( Edit History Discussion )

Barbara Mikulski: new attorneys,nd new special be skilled in an exciting new field called forensic our f.b.i. is going to play a major role in this. i've talked personally director muller about it, as has senator shelby. we have gotten the f.b.i.'s commitment to really beef this up.

5:20:01 to 5:20:23( Edit History Discussion )

Barbara Mikulski: in our own hometown of baltimore, the u.s. attorney has put together a special t force to be able to deal with this. and what does it mean? well, first of all, in the federal checkbook, we have put in $75 million. number of these mortgage fraud task forces around

5:20:24 to 5:20:45( Edit History Discussion )

Barbara Mikulski: so we have a very excellent one under rod baltimore and our state right this minute, but we to be able to go into rural states with large populations and others that right now do not have them. specifically, we will be the f.b.i. to hire, as i said,

5:20:46 to 5:21:07( Edit History Discussion )

Barbara Mikulski: new agents and forensic accountants. this is highly specialized, but there are people with backgrounds in specl traing in forensics. it's only high to a test tube but now says hi to the type of accounting that will go after these crooks.

5:21:08 to 5:21:30( Edit History Discussion )

Barbara Mikulski: it's amazing that they can look at the books and kno have been cheating. but in order have the agents be able to detect and inves capture these white-collar criminals, but we also want our u.s. attorneys to prosecute financial we want to be able to increase

5:21:31 to 5:21:52( Edit History Discussion )

Barbara Mikulski: it by adding u.s. attorneys. we're adding several u.s. attorneys and support staff around the country to be able to establish the task force work in the task force. we're very proud of our u.s. attorneys, and i bel attorney general, eric holder, is helping to really restore the

5:21:53 to 5:22:13( Edit History Discussion )

Barbara Mikulski: integrity of our u.s. attorneys around the country. we believe in maryland we have a very high value funct attorney's office, but they're swamped. they're going after from drug dealers to other violent criminals, and we also want them to have the resources to go after the white-collar

5:22:14 to 5:22:34( Edit History Discussion )

Barbara Mikulski: crime. now, this is a crime, wasn't like it was -- just because it's often don't equate it as a crime,ut for the criminal division at justice, we're also encouraging them to step up their activity.

5:22:35 to 5:22:59( Edit History Discussion )

Barbara Mikulski: so again, there we're adding attorneys and support staff. and putting the money behind it to be able to do. and we're work in this civil division to fund initiatives, to also litigate these cases and to make

5:23:00 to 5:23:20( Edit History Discussion )

Barbara Mikulski: them, we not only prosecute them, but we have the lawyers and the support staff to do it. now, support staff is paralegals, clerical people, but again, this is a unique kind of crime, so you have to come with multiple skills. you have to come, being a great lawyer or a great person that's

5:23:21 to 5:23:41( Edit History Discussion )

Barbara Mikulski: part of the legal team. you strong litigating skills. but also you have to be well versed in financial services and accounting so we want to be able to bring them on and be able to keep them as we go through many of these other

5:23:42 to 5:24:02( Edit History Discussion )

Barbara Mikulski: the kinds of skills that we need to not only go after white-collar crime, but also the violent crime. remember, we got al capone not in the act of robbing a but in cheating on his taxes. it was that brilliant f.b.i. generation where you had to be either a lawyer or an accountant

5:24:03 to 5:24:24( Edit History Discussion )

Barbara Mikulski: to work for the f.b.i. and now, again, lawyers and accountants are welcome at the f.b.i., but they caught al capone cheating on his income tax, and it was one of the ways we could nail him. well, i'm not saying that we're going to be nailing their -- for cheating on their income tax, but we are going to

5:24:25 to 5:24:45( Edit History Discussion )

Barbara Mikulski: nail people who cheated and schemed and gouged against innocent people who wanted to buy a home, through loan sharks, having phony ads, having fine print, that you bought a home in the large print and you lost it in the fine print.

5:24:46 to 5:25:06( Edit History Discussion )

Barbara Mikulski: we want to make sure that those people know how to read the fine print and know what it means. so, mr. chairman, while we're debati looking at those things that are focus on topics outside the scope of this bill, we wanted people to know that we're on their for everybody who is stretched

5:25:07 to 5:25:30( Edit History Discussion )

Barbara Mikulski: very thin financially, trying to keep their head above water and trying to buy want them at least when they go to get a loan or to refinance it, that when they go, they are dealing with honest, reputable dealers, and to the bad guys, it's time on the bad guys and stop the