Christopher Dodd

Mr. DODD

Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Judiciary Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. Res. 521 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate, and any statements relating to the resolution be placed in the Record.

Mr. DODD

Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Judiciary Committee be discharged from further consideration of S. Res. 410 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate, and any statements related to the resolution be printed in the Record.

Mr. DODD

Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 2 p.m. Monday, May 17; that following the prayer and pledge, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed to have expired, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and the Senate proceed to a period of morning business until 3 p.m., with Senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes each; that following morning business, the Senate resume consideration of S. 3217, the Wall Street reform bill.

Mr. DODD

Mr. DODD. Mr. President, Senators should expect several votes in relation to amendments to the Wall Street reform bill beginning at 5:30 p.m. on Monday.

Mr. DODD

Mr. DODD. Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that it adjourn under the previous order.

Mr. DODD

Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that notwithstanding the adjournment of the Senate, the Record remain open until 1:30 p.m. today for the introduction of bills, statements, resolutions, and the addition of cosponsors.

Mr. DODD

Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolutions be agreed to en bloc, the preambles be agreed to, the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table en bloc, and that any statements related to the resolutions be printed in the Record.

Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed en bloc to the consideration of the following Senate resolutions: S. Res. 526; S. Res. 527; S. Res. 528; S. Res. 539; and S. Res. 530.

Mr. DODD

Mr. DODD. Mr. President, again, I cannot thank our friend and colleague from Colorado enough. He has done a great job. This is a terrific idea--one that is long overdue. The Presiding Officer is a member of our Banking Committee. We have talked a lot about these issues over the last couple years. We have had hearings and, in fact, legislation dealing with credit scores. A lot of people have had their good names stolen from them, in a sense, as a result of the thievery that goes on with credit cards and the like, and people's credit scores have been manipulated. It is difficult to find out where you are in all this. It is ironic that we are citizens in our country, and other people are determining whether we are creditworthy when we are buying an automobile, purchasing a home or getting a student loan. The idea that we as consumers cannot have access to these scores that people are writing about us--it is kind of offensive that we even have to go through this. It is degrading, to put it mildly. I am grateful to the Senator from Colorado for pursuing this. He would have gone a bit further. I would have, too, but I sense we are going to have a problem here to get anything done at all. The fact that are going to have this on a transactional basis is a major step forward and may alleviate 80 to 90 percent of the difficulties. That is not to say there isn't room for further improvement down the road. There will be other steps we can take in the future to make sure people have access to their scores and where they stand on their ability to afford the things they need as a family. The Senator from Colorado has made a significant contribution. We are going to have to vote on it. I am confident we can prevail. I believe both Democrats and Republicans share the concerns the Senator has raised. He has made a valuable contribution to this effort. I thank the Senator personally for that. I look forward to being supportive of this amendment early next week. I thank the Senator.

Mr. DODD

Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the committee- reported amendments be withdrawn, that a Lieberman substitute amendment, which is at the desk, be agreed to, the bill, as amended be read a third time and passed; that a title amendment, which is at the desk, be agreed to, the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate, and any statements related to the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. DODD

Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the committee- reported amendments be considered and agreed to, the bill, as amended, be read three times, passed, and the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table en bloc; and that any statements relating to the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. DODD

Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 315, S. 1132.

Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the committee- reported substitute amendment be agreed to, the bill, as amended, be read a third time and passed, the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate, and that any statements relating to the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. DODD

Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 273, S. 2768.

Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the committee- reported substitute amendment be considered; that a Dorgan-Rockefeller amendment, which is at the desk, be agreed to; the substitute amendment, as amended, be agreed to; the bill, as amended, be read a third time and passed; an amendment to the title, which is at the desk, be agreed to; the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate, and that any statements relating to the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. DODD

Mr. DODD. Mr. President, as in executive session, I ask unanimous consent that the injunction of secrecy be removed from the following treaty transmitted to the Senate on May 13, 2010, by the President of the United States: Treaty with Russia on Measures for Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (Treaty Document No. 111-5.) I further ask unanimous consent that the treaty be considered as having been read the first time; that it be referred, with accompanying papers, to the Committee on Foreign Relations and ordered to be printed; and that the President's message be printed in the Record.

Mr. DODD

Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. Res. 525, submitted earlier today.

Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or debate, and any statements related to the resolution be printed in the Record.

Mr. DODD

Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 9:30 a.m., tomorrow, Friday, May 14; that following the prayer and pledge, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the morning hour be deemed expired, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and the Senate resume consideration of S. 3217, Wall Street reform.

Mr. DODD

Mr. DODD. Mr. President, as previously announced, there will be no rollcall votes during Friday's session of the Senate.

Mr. DODD

Mr. DODD. If there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent it adjourn under the previous order.

Mr. DODD

Mr. DODD. Briefly, my concern with this amendment is we are replacing the rating agencies without having anything in their place. I urge my colleagues to vote no and yield back my time.

Mr. DODD

Mr. DODD. I will take 30 more seconds. Here is the concern. With smaller entities, I can see the case where they should go to bankruptcy, and that may happen. We are talking about very complex, interconnected ones. My colleague is correct, by the way. I should have made note of this. We did try. And, again, it is not the fault of the Judiciary Committee. They have been overwhelmed with judicial nominations and everything else. The present bankruptcy process does pose an issue with large, complex entities for the very reason I outlined, and therefore you need some mechanism because then the alternative is bailout, I presume, rather than having a lot of innocent companies fail, with a lot of unemployment occurring and damage to the economy. There is a step that will have to be worked on. I don't disagree on GSEs. I care deeply about that, and it is an area that needs to be reformed. But at this juncture, to strip this out is to throw us right back. My concern is not what else needs to be done down the road, but if you strip this out at this juncture, we leave ourselves very vulnerable. With the Shelby-Dodd amendment that passed 93 to 5, I think it was-- we tried to fill in a lot of gaps people have. We got rid of that prepayment issue that people had a lot concerns about, and it is a postpayment system. All of the issues we tried to resolve. I appreciate the comments of my colleague from Tennessee. With that, I yield back the remainder of my time and ask for the yeas and nays.