2016 -- S 2200

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LC003923

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     STATE OF RHODE ISLAND

IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

JANUARY SESSION, A.D. 2016

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S E N A T E   R E S O L U T I O N

RESPECTFULLY REQUESTING CONGRESS TO RE-ENACT PROVISIONS OF THE

GLASS-STEAGALL BANKING ACT

     Introduced By: Senators DiPalma, Ruggerio, Ciccone, Lombardi, and Metts

     Date Introduced: January 27, 2016

     Referred To: Senate Finance

     WHEREAS, From 1933 to 1999 the Federal Building Banking Act of 1933, known as

the Glass-Steagall Act, worked effectively to protect the public interest by separating the

functions of commercial banking from investment banking, insurance, and securities trading; and

     WHEREAS, The Glass-Steagall Act was repealed in 1999, expanding the ability of

financial entities to exploit the financial system for their own gain in disregard of the public

interest, and contributing to the greatest speculative bubble and subsequent worldwide economic

distress since the Great Depression; and

     WHEREAS, Many of the financial services entities were saved by the United States

Treasury at a cost of billions of dollars to American taxpayers; and

     WHEREAS, Within the thousands of pages of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act,

there are no prohibitions preventing "too big to fail" financial services organizations from

investing in or undertaking substantial risks in hundreds of trillions of dollars of derivative

contracts; and

     WHEREAS, A new set of financial bubbles are in full swing, and the American taxpayers

are at renewed risk of being forced to cover for losses incurred by derivatives gambling of the

financial services conglomerates; and

     WHEREAS, Re-enactment of the Glass-Steagall provisions would protect the public

from these bail-out costs, and free credit resources to be directed into large-scale infrastructure

and other physical economic investments, with attendant restoration of skilled employment and

the tax base; and

     WHEREAS, Unites States H.R. 381, the "Return to Prudent Banking Act of 2015",

calling for the reinstatement of Glass-Steagall, was introduced in January of 2015, and currently

has sixty-nine bipartisan cosponsors; and the parallel United States S. 1709, "The 21st Century

Glass-Steagall Act", was introduced July 7, 2015, with seven cosponsors; now, therefore be it

     RESOLVED, That the Senate of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations

urges the United States Congress and the President of the United States to enact Glass-Steagall

inspired legislation currently before Congress, and prohibit commercial banks and bank holding

companies from investing in stocks, underwriting securities, or investing in or acting as

guarantors to derivatives transactions; and be it further

     RESOLVED, That copies of this resolution shall be sent to the President of the United

States, to the presiding officers of each house of Congress, and to each member of the State of

Rhode Island Congressional Delegation.

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LC003923

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