Barney Frank

Opinion Source Information:

Source

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank said earlier on CNBC that a bill he is working on, which Kanjorski wants to toughen, would let a systemic risk regulator "break up" risky financial firms.

Opinion Source Information:

Source

“I think introducing Glass-Steagall now across the board in a weak economy would be counterproductive because you would force sales and the like,” said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the Democratic chairman of the House Financial Services Committee and a supporter of the president’s plan. “And I think people have exaggerated the importance of Glass-Steagall in this crisis as it wasn’t the main source of problems for Lehman Brothers or A.I.G.”

Opinion Source Information:

On the issue of short-selling, proponents of restoring the uptick rule say its elimination helped fuel the volatility on Wall Street amid the financial crisis and the pounding of company stocks targeted by market speculators.

Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, on Tuesday said he was hopeful the rule "will be restored within a month." Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., agreed that bringing back the rule was necessary.

Rep. Gary Ackerman, D-N.Y., has proposed legislation that would order the SEC to reinstate the rule.

cbsnews

Opinion Source Information:

OpenCongress

Gun Show Loophole Closing Act of 2007
To require criminal background checks on all firearms transactions occurring at events that provide a venue for the sale, offer for sale, transfer, or exchange of firearms, and for other purposes.

Sponsor
Rep. Michael Castle [R, DE-0]
Rep. Robert Andrews [D, NJ-1]
Rep. Diana DeGette [D, CO-1]
Rep. Eliot Engel [D, NY-17]
Rep. Anna Eshoo [D, CA-14]
Rep. Barney Frank [D, MA-4]
Rep. Mark Kirk [R, IL-10]
Rep. Zoe Lofgren [D, CA-16]
Rep. Carolyn McCarthy [D, NY-4]
Rep. Betty McCollum [D, MN-4]
Rep. James McDermott [D, WA-7]
Rep. James Moran [D, VA-8]
Rep. Edward Pastor [D, AZ-4]
Rep. Charles Rangel [D, NY-15]
Rep. Steven Rothman [D, NJ-9]
Christopher Shays
Rep. Brad Sherman [D, CA-27]
Rep. Christopher Smith [R, NJ-4]
Rep. Robert Wexler [D, FL-19]

Opinion Source Information:

Watching the A.I.G. Hearing on the Hill

Mr. Frank now insists that A.I.G. will be subpoenaed to release the names of those who received bonuses, of those who stayed and those who left even after getting a big payout. Mr. Liddy offered to release them if they could be kept confidential, which Mr. Frank said he couldn’t do.

Opinion Source Information:

Politico

Obama oversold bipartisanship, Frank says

Barney Frank offers a blunt assessment of President Barack Obama's performance during the stimulus fight -- saying the rookie chief executive provoked a "partisan reaction" by over-promising to deliver Republican support for the bill.

"I don't think he should have set the expectation he was going to get Republican votes," the Financial Services chairman told Politico right before the vote on Friday.

"He set himself a high bar -- and an irrelevant bar.. and he didn't achieve it," the Massachusetts Democrat added. "He should not have legitimized [the notion of bipartisanship], that prompted their partisan reaction... I don't think he's going to make that mistake again."

Frank, who is close to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, added that the sharp partisan division in the House -- exemplified by the lack of a single GOP "yes" on either stimulus vote -- wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

"I want lines drawn!" he said. "There are real ideological differences here."

Opinion Source Information:

South Coast Today:

In a meeting with the editorial board of The Standard-Times, Rep. Frank, D-Mass., also called for a 25 percent cut in military spending, saying the Pentagon has to start choosing from its many weapons programs, and that upper-income taxpayers are going to see an increase in what they are asked to pay.

The military cuts also mean getting out of Iraq sooner, he said.

Opinion Source Information:

Huff Post

Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) "is not in favor of abandoning mark-to-market, and furthermore believes it would be a mistake for Congress to dictate accounting rules," said his spokesman Steven W. Adamske.

Opinion Source Information:

From CNN:

FRANK: Mr. Bush was the president. You had a majority in the House and a majority in the Senate. You didn't regulate. You said you wanted to. I must tell you, the notion that I stopped Tom DeLay and President Bush and the Republicans from doing what they really wanted to do -- if I was going to stop you from doing things, we wouldn't have had a war in Iraq, we wouldn't have had a lot of other, I think, terrible mistakes.

Opinion Source Information:

From CNN:

FRANK: Mr. Bush was the president. You had a majority in the House and a majority in the Senate. You didn't regulate. You said you wanted to. I must tell you, the notion that I stopped Tom DeLay and President Bush and the Republicans from doing what they really wanted to do -- if I was going to stop you from doing things, we wouldn't have had a war in Iraq, we wouldn't have had a lot of other, I think, terrible mistakes.

Opinion Source Information:

H.R. 1:
111st Congress 2009-2010
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

Cosponsors [as of 2009-01-29]
Rep. Edolphus Towns [D-NY]
Rep. Henry Waxman [D-CA]
Rep. John Spratt [D-SC]
Rep. Barney Frank [D-MA]
Rep. Barton Gordon [D-TN]
Rep. James Oberstar [D-MN]
Rep. Charles Rangel [D-NY]
Rep. Nydia Velázquez [D-NY]
Rep. George Miller [D-CA]

Opinion Source Information:

daily dish

Congressman Frank:

"I am very disappointed by President-elect Barack Obama's decision to honor Reverend Rick Warren with a prominent role in his inauguration. Religious leaders obviously have every right to speak out in opposition to anti-discrimination measures, even in the degrading terms that Rev. Warren has used with regard to same-sex marriage. But that does not confer upon them the right to a place of honor in the inauguration ceremony of a president whose stated commitment to LGBT rights won him the strong support of the great majority of those who support that cause.

 

It is irrelevant that Rev. Warren invited Senator Obama to address his congregation, since he extended an equal invitation to Senator McCain. Furthermore, the President-Elect has not simply invited Rev. Warren to give a speech as part of a series in which various views are presented. The selection of a member of the clergy to occupy this uniquely elevated position has always been considered a mark of respect and approval by those who are being inaugurated."

Opinion Source Information:

60 minutes

He said he's pretty confident the crisis will end in about a year. Part of the problem right now, he says, is that Secretary Paulson gave the bailout money to banks, but he’s not leaning on them to lend it.