Politics

Pelosi, Reid to Bush: We Are Committed to Working With You and Our Republican Colleagues to Enact a Bipartisan Bill Without Further Delay

By Karina

Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid sent the following letter this afternoon to President Bush on the urgent need to pass bipartisan legislation to address the crisis in the financial markets:

September 30, 2008

The Honorable George W. Bush
The President of the United States
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear Mr. President:

Yesterday?s defeat of the Economic Emergency Stabilization Act resulted in additional severe economic impacts both on Wall Street and on Main Street. The consequences of yesterday?s vote ? an historic drop in the stock market and the loss of $1.2 trillion in savings, investments, and retirement funds ? had a major impact on American families, small businesses, and others that demonstrated the imperative for Congressional action.

We have already made much progress in improving the plan originally sent to Congress. After many days of discussions, we reached bipartisan agreement on key additions, including strong measures to protect taxpayers from the costs of this program; to impose tough accountability on Wall Street through strong oversight and transparency; to limit excessive executive compensation and golden parachutes; to reduce home foreclosures to help families remain in their homes; and to sequence the funding of the program to ensure appropriate cost controls and independent reviews.

We must continue our bipartisan efforts of the past two weeks to pass a comprehensive bill to help stabilize our financial system and protect the American taxpayer. We welcome your statement this morning and are committed to working with you and our Republican colleagues to enact a bipartisan bill without further delay.

Working together, we are confident we will pass a responsible bill in the very near future.

Sincerely,

Nancy Pelosi
Speaker of the House

Harry Reid
Majority Leader of the Senate

Full post as published by The Gavel on September 30, 2008 (boomark / email).