{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://bit.ly/2B98614", "Following Statement by Treasury Secretary on \"Too Big To Fail\"; Brown Vitter Release Statement Urging the Administration to Continue Efforts to End \"Too Big To Fail\" Policies", "2013-12-05", "2013", "2013-12", "Democrat", "House", "OH", "Sherrod Brown", "B000944", "bit.ly", null, null, "legacy", "Sens. Brown and Vitter Introduced Legislation that Would Eliminate Government Subsidies for Wall Street Megabanks\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tThursday, December 5, 2013\n            \n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tWASHINGTON, D.C.\u2014Following today\u2019s comment by Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew that \u201cToo Big To Fail\u201d policies are being corrected by Administrative action, U.S. Sens. Brown (D-OH) and Vitter (R-LA), authors of the Terminating Bailout for Taxpayer Fairness Act, legislation that would end \u201cToo Big To Fail\u201d policies by require the largest and most interconnected financial institutions to maintain a 15 percent capital ratio to ensure taxpayers will not serve as the backstop for risky investments, released the following statements:\n\u201cIt is premature for anyone to take a victory lap when \u2018too big to fail\u2019 policies are still alive and well,\u201d Brown said. \u201cDespite what some on Wall Street and in Washington may say, our work is not finished. Regulators have failed to finalize key rules to address the issue \u2013 including orderly liquidation rules, enhanced capital and leverage rules for systemically important institutions, limits on the Fed\u2019s emergency lending power, and pushing risky derivatives out of federally insured banks. As long as the market believes that certain institutions have the implicit support of taxpayers, and provide a funding advantage based upon that support, Sen. Vitter and I will continue fighting to hold megabanks accountable for their risky investments.\u201d\n\u201cIf Lew thinks he can claim victory over \u2018too big to fail\u2019 today, I\u2019d tell him he\u2019s living on another planet. Independent study after independent study shows that too big to fail is alive and well with the Wall Street megabanks and they still enjoy a cost of funding advantage over their smaller competitors,\u201d Vitter said. \u201cEliminating the megabanks federal handouts \u2013 and addressing the problem of \u2018too big to fail\u2019 financial institutions \u2013 is a simple matter of common sense, and it absolutely still needs to be addressed. The megabanks have been growing at a rapid pace since the financial meltdown \u2013 largely on the backs of U.S. taxpayers. I\u2019ll continue fighting to protect the taxpayers from financial risks by implementing a systemic solution, increasing the minimum amount of capital the megabanks are required to have.\u201d\nIn November, Brown and Vitter released the first of two reports by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) on the federal government\u2019s bailout of large financial institutions during the 2007-2008 financial crisis. The GAO report found that Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Morgan Stanley, and Wells Fargo & Co were able to borrow below-market interests rates, demonstrating yet another economic benefit of being \u201cToo Big to Fail.\u201d \u00a0Additionally, the report confirmed that banks and bank holding companies with assets over $50 billion were the predominate beneficiaries of taxpayer funded bailouts and relied more heavily on short-term funding markets compared to small or community based banks.\nDespite receiving assistance from taxpayers in 2008, today,\u00a0the nation\u2019s four largest banks\u2014JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo\u2014are nearly $2 trillion larger today than they were before the crisis. Their growth has been aided by an implicit guarantee\u2014funded by taxpayers and awarded by virtue of their size\u2014as the market knows that these institutions have been deemed \u201ctoo big to fail.\u201d Brown and Vitter have asked the GAO to investigate whether this allows the nation\u2019s largest megabanks to borrow at a lower rate than regional banks, community banks, and credit unions. \u00a0\nBrown and Vitter\u2019s Terminating Bailouts for Taxpayer Fairness Act (TBTF Act) would eliminate government subsidies to megabanks, ensuring financial institutions have adequate capital to protect against losses. The TBTF Act would additionally set reasonable capital standards that reflect the size and complexity of the institution and provide regulatory relief for community banks.\nThe second part of the study will be released in 2014 and will focus on the funding advantages enjoyed by the largest banks, by virtue of their \u201cToo Big to Fail\u201d status.\nA link to the GAO report is: HERE. A summary of the GAO report can be found: HERE.\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["http://bit.ly/2B98614"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.0157390497624874, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}